Torrential rains brought by Tropical Storm Fung-wong caused severe flooding in Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳) before it brushed the southern part of Taiwan last night.
Fung-wong had super typhoon strength when it battered the Philippines on Sunday, causing flooding, landslides, power outages and at least 27 deaths.
Holding tropical storm strength yesterday morning, it continued to lose wind speed and size, with its storm circle shrinking as it moved toward waters southwest of Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public
It passed over the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at 7:40pm before being downgraded to a tropical depression yesterday evening, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
Heavy rain poured down in Suao starting on Tuesday night, with some streets flooding up to one-story high.
The maximum rainfall in Suao reached 13.05cm per hour, with a total accumulated rainfall of 65.2cm over 24 hours, the Water Resources Agency said.
Photo courtesy of the Suao Township Office
The torrential rain caused severe flooding, affecting an area of 76 hectares, it said.
The Suao Township Office estimated that 3,200 households were affected by flooding.
As of yesterday morning, heavy rains and flooding injured at least 51 people, the Central Emergency Operation Center said.
Yilan accounted for 12 of the 51 injuries, while the remaining cases were scattered across other regions, center data showed.
As of yesterday morning, the center had reported 349 disaster incidents nationwide, including 99 flooding events, 76 of which were in Yilan.
Mountainous areas in Yilan, Hualien County, Taitung County, Taipei and New Taipei City faced a high risk of secondary disasters, including landslides and debris flows, authorities warned.
Authorities evacuated 8,326 people, the majority from Hualien.
As of 8:30pm, the center of Fung-wong was on land about 12km north of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, and moving northeast at 31kph, slowly increasing to 41kph, CWA data showed.
It was carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of 54kph and gusts of 83kph, compared with 72kph and 101kph respectively at about 10am.
Fung-wong had weakened, with its storm circle contracting and having already extended over parts of southern Taiwan, the CWA said.
The system still posed a threat to areas south of Tainan and Taitung, it added.
CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said the storm was likely to continue moving along southwestern coastal waters.
Due to the combined influence of Fung-wong’s outer rim and strengthening northeasterly winds, waves of 3m to 4m were expected along the coast, and up to 4m to 5m in the Taiwan Strait from yesterday through today, Chu said.
As Fung-wong moved north, rainfall would increase in central and southern Taiwan, while northern Taiwan would see stronger northerly winds and heavier rain, particularly along the Keelung coast and in mountainous areas of Yilan, Chu said.
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