One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day.
The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐).
Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue operations due to rough waves.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
The other missing person was swept away by strong river currents near Shueiyuan Bridge in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林) at about 2pm yesterday, witnesses who reported the incident said.
The fire department said it was searching for the person.
The Ministry of the Interior said that as of 2pm on Tuesday 9,240 people in 11 administrative regions had been evacuated.
Typhoon Krathon was expected to land in southwest Taiwan proper early today, hitting Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung, but could weaken to a tropical storm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.
As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 110km southwest of Kaohsiung heading north-northeast at 8kph with winds around the eye measured at about 162kph, about force 14 on the Beaufort scale, the agency said in a news release.
The storm was expected to maintain its relatively slow pace as it moves up Taiwan proper over the next 24 hours, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said.
Photo: CNA
Krathon would continue to pose a significant threat despite predictions that it would weaken, as its structure would remain mostly intact, Wu said, adding that the storm’s eyewall would bring dangerous winds and torrential rain.
Land and sea alerts have been declared for all of Taiwan proper, Penghu County, the Taiwan Strait and waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the CWA said.
Extremely heavy to torrential rain advisories were issued for Pingtung, Taitung and Hualien counties; extremely heavy rain advisories were issued for Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, as well as Yilan and Chiayi counties; while heavy rain advisories were issued for New Taipei City, and Hsinchu and Yunlin counties, it said.
Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times
Winds of up to force 14 on the Beaufort scale were expected this morning off Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, it said.
Winds between force 11 and 13 on the Beaufort scale were expected today areas south of Taichung, as well as Nantou and Hualien counties, and Taitung County’s Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島), and Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, the CWA said.
Winds of 9 to 10 on the Beaufort scale were expected in Taoyuan, Taichung and Taitung County, and off New Taipei City, it said.
As much as 1,136mm of rainfall was reported in Pingtung County’s Dahanshan (大漢山), while winds up to 12 on the Beaufort scale were recorded on Orchid Island, the strongest in the nation, it said.
As of 5:41am yesterday, 23 people in Taitung County had been injured, including three who were hospitalized, due to inclement weather brought by the typhoon, the Central Emergency Operation Center said.
One of the people hospitalized was a truck driver who was seriously injured on Monday night after his vehicle collided with a large rock on the South Link Highway in Taimali Township (太麻里).
The driver was transferred to an intensive care unit after surgery at Mackay Memorial Hospital’s Taitung branch, the center said.
As of yesterday morning, the others who were hospitalized were at Orchid Island’s health clinic after receiving emergency care, it said.
The Barbados-registered Blue Lagoon cargo ship, which had run aground off Orchid Island, began to tilt yesterday morning, the center said.
The CWA denied media reports that it lowered rain and wind forecasts only after a typhoon day was declared across the nation a day earlier.
The agency promptly provided wind and rain forecasts as they became available to local governments for reference, it said.
The CWA was responding to reports that it failed to provide timely weather forecasts, which misled the Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan governments into designating yesterday a typhoon day, even though the prevailing weather conditions in those areas did not meet the standard to suspend work and classes.
Late last night, the agency announced that all 22 administrative regions had canceled work and classes for today.
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