Taipei city survived Typhoon Bilis, which swept through the city from Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning, with neither deaths nor building collapses, officials said yesterday.
As Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is overseas, his deputy, Ou Chin-der (歐晉德), served as acting commander-in-chief of the ad-hoc Disaster Response Center located at the Fire Department of Taipei (FDT, 消防局).
Ou told reporters and heads of city government bureaus at the post-disaster review meeting that the efforts of municipal agencies and the cooperation of the public had helped to minimize the scale of the damage to the city.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I'm happy to announce that the city has escaped the typhoon without suffering serious damage, he said. Having all of our assets in place and opening the Disaster Response Center well before the storm made landfall was the key to our success," he said.
Typhoon Bilis ravaged the city from 8pm on Tuesday to 10:30am yesterday. The city mobilized 7,053 people and 279 vehicles to counter the possibility of disaster.
According to Shiau Ing-wen (蕭英文), deputy director of the FDT, as of 4pm yesterday, no deaths had been reported, but 34 city residents suffered minor injuries, 28 of whom were confirmed to have been treated and released from hospitals.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The formidable winds, which gusted up to 235kph, knocked down power lines and caused power outages for 27,000 households, uprooted 2,179 roadside trees, partially blew down at least 955 others, and flattened 15 electricity cable poles, 84 advertising hoardings and 13 scaffolds.
Thirteen people evacuated from low-lying areas in Ta-an District returned home from their temporary shelters yesterday.
Ou called for the authorities concerned to cooperate with the public to resume normal transportation, electricity and water services no later than last night.
The body which oversees the efficiency of municipal employees -- the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (研考會) -- seemed happy with the city's performance.
"Our review found that 87 percent of problem situations have been taken care of and the rest should be finished by tonight," commission chairman Samuel Wu (吳秀光) said.
Even so, scholars called for the city to pay extra attention to large advertising signs, which can pose dangers, especially during the typhoon season.
"The bottom line is that advertising signs have to be safe as well as blending in with local features," said Hsia Chu-joe (
Hsia, who participated in the drafting of the city's measure governing the advertising boards, criticized the bylaw as "too strict" to be carried out.
"It simply doesn't make sense to begin with, and secondly, who knows who is supposed to police it?" he said, saying that the law was excessively rigorous and that police were already preoccupied with other duties.
Hsia suggested the city draw up different measures for different areas and thoroughly enforce the law.
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