One person died and 304 were injured after southern Taiwan was pummeled by strong winds and heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Koinu since Wednesday, the Central Emergency Operations Center said yesterday.
An 80-year-old woman in Taichung died from severe bleeding caused by a cut by broken glass blown by the typhoon, the center said.
Nearly 330,000 households reported power outages, and 70,000 of them were still waiting for power supply as of 2:30pm, it said.
Photo: Sean CHANG, AFP
The center also received 1,251 reports of damage to road trees and 763 reports of infrastructure damage.
Typhoon Koinu also devastated outlying Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), with 90 percent of the boats docked at the island’s Kaiyuan Harbor having capsized or disappeared.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said that its three anemometers in Lanyu were broken after detecting a gust of 95.2m per second, which exceeded Level 17 on the Beaufort scale.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration via CNA
The gust set a new record since the anemometers began to measure wind speeds in Taiwan in 1897, the CWA said.
Lanyu Township Office head Hsieh Hu-yuan (謝胡源) told the Central News Agency that the typhoon had done severe damage to the island’s infrastructure.
“The township office was flooded. The electricity supply was almost out completely. The main road around the island was inaccessible. Flights and ferries to and from the island were canceled, and homes and boats of civilians were severely damaged. Fortunately, we do not have injured people who need to be transported to Taiwan proper,” Hsieh said, adding that the township would strive to make the highway accessible as soon as the wind and rain ease,
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
Former legislator Lai Kun-cheng (賴坤成) also posted photographs taken by a friend in Lanyu on Facebook, showing how the typhoon damaged vehicles, houses and a gas station.
“We have yet to reach some friends who live in two villages at the windward side. Hope everyone in Lanyu and Taitung survive the disaster,” Lai said.
Lanyu Senior High School also reported severe damage to its facilities.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
“The roaring waves lasted all night, and it was difficult for people to walk to the township office with all the reef rocks on the highway,” school principal Lien Wen-chien (連紋乾) said.
A bed-and-breakfast operator said they hope that the military would help repair the damaged infrastructure and facilities.
Land and sea alerts are scheduled to be lifted by noon today and tomorrow respectively, after the typhoon moves westward, the CWA said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS