The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow.
People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said.
As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached 191km per hour, with the storm’s radius expanding to 320km, it said.
The CWA issued a sea alert and a land alert for Ragasa at 8:40am and 5:30pm respectively. The sea alert applies to vessels off the nation’s southeast coast, in the Bashi Channel, south of the Taiwan Strait and near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), while the land alert applies to the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County.
Although the projected path showed that Ragasa’s center was unlikely to make landfall in Taiwan, the typhoon remained well-structured and had a broad radius, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said, adding that it could get stronger as it moved closer to Taiwan.
As of 2pm yesterday, waves of more than 2m had been observed off Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼), Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Taitung County, she said.
Rain would mostly fall on the east coast today, with heavy or extremely heavy rainfall forecast for the north coast and Hengchun Peninsula, the CWA said.
Rain is forecast for Lienchiang County (Matsu), areas north of Taoyuan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, it said.
There is a low change of rain in the areas on the west coast between Taoyuan and Tainan today, and a high temperature alert could be issued for Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi counties, it added.
People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, which could reach level 8 to 10 on the Beaufort scale, it said.
Rain on the east coast and mountainous areas in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties could surge tonight, the agency said.
Extremely heavy rainfall was forecast in Hualien and Taitung counties as well as mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties from tonight to early Wednesday morning, it added.
Heavy or extremely heavy rain was forecast for mountainous areas in other parts of the nation, the CWA said.
Schools and offices in parts of Taitung and Pingtung counties will close today due to the typhoon.
The affected areas are Orchid Island and Green Island in Taitung County, and Fangshan (枋山), Checheng (車城), Hengchun (恆春), Shizih (獅子), Mudan (牡丹) and Manzhou (滿州) townships in Pingtung County, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration, which oversees government workers, said in a statement last night.
Additional reporting by CNA
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