All administrative regions except for Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan canceled work and classes for today, as eastern and southern Taiwan braced for the heaviest impact of Typhoon Koinu.
According to a Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast, southern and eastern Taiwan would be the worst affected by rainfall brought by Koinu, with extremely heavy rain expected in Hualien and Taitung counties, on the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) and in mountainous areas of Pingtung County, reaching more than 200mm within a day or more than 100mm within a three-hour period.
Other parts of Taiwan are also expected to experience heavy rainfall as the typhoon approaches, said the CWA, which issued heavy rain advisories for most of the country in effect until tonight.
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
As of 8:30pm, Koinu was 118km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and was moving westward at 10kph, CWA data showed.
With a radius of 250km, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, forecasters said.
The storm might tilt south as it passes over land, and its eye is likely to pass somewhere between southern Taiwan and the Bashi Channel around noon today, it said.
Winds between levels 9 and 11 on the Beaufort scale were expected in coastal areas south of Taoyuan, along the east coast and on outlying islands, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said.
Level 13 winds were recorded yesterday on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as the storm passed over, while Level 10 winds were recorded in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) and Dongyi (東吉) in Penghu County, she said.
Waves of at least 5m along the Keelung, eastern and southwestern coasts, as well as the Hengchun Peninsula are expected through today, and could reach as high as 7m in some areas, Chu said.
Although winds had grown stronger by 7pm, only Hualien County has seen prominent rainfall, the CWA said.
There were no reports of significant damage as of press time last night.
Taichung had experienced Level 9 winds, resulting in 83 reports of fallen trees as of 3pm, although no one was reported injured.
Tainan experienced some wind and drizzle, with a four-story-tall temple structure in Cigu District (七股) being blown over yesterday morning, while the Workforce Development Agency’s Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan Regional Branch reported that a three-story-tall tree had been blown down.
More than 100 international and domestic flights had been canceled, while ferry services to outlying islands were suspended.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
PLANE HIT: The Israeli military said it shot down an Iranian Air Force fighter over Tehran, while an Iranian warship sank off Sri Lanka, with no cause known The US and Israel yesterday hit Iran’s capital and other cities in multiple airstrikes on the fifth day of the war with Iran. Israel targeted the Iranian leadership and security forces, while the Islamic Republic responded with missile barrages and drone attacks on Israel, and across the region. Tehran residents woke to dawn blasts and Iranian state television showed the ruins of building in the center of the capital. The Shiite seminary city of Qom and multiple other cities were also targeted. With fighter jets roaring overhead, those still in Tehran looked anxiously to the skies. One man, who ran a clothing shop,
Taiwan pineapples are to be exported to the US for the first time later this year, after the US yesterday announced importation requirements, the Ministry of Agriculture said today. The US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service yesterday published a draft of requirements to import Taiwanese pineapples, with a 62-day comment period, the ministry said in a news release. The US maintains strict requirements for imported fresh fruit, it said. The ministry’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency applied to export pineapples to the US in 2020 and has since cooperated with the US to provide all the necessary information and reports, it
RSS