Tropical Storm Nari dumped heavy rain on Kaohsiung yesterday, causing two landslides and threatening the area with the possibility of floods and water outages.
There were no reports of deaths or injury.
The tropical storm, downgraded from a typhoon early yesterday morning, remained 70km south of Taichung throughout yesterday.
From 1pm yesterday, increasingly heavy rain began to soak Kaohsiung and had not abated by press time last night.
Falling rocks blocked two sections of the Southern Cross-Island Highway in Kaohsiung County.
The first rockfall occurred 90km east of Kaohsiung in the Kaochung section of the road in Taoyuan township. The debris was removed yesterday.
The second rockfall happened 113km east of Kaohsiung in Meishan township along a 250m section of road. But debris from the landslide could not be cleared until the rain let up.
Due to the possibility that Fairy Creek in Nantzu could overflow, authorities have closed Hsichou Bridge in neighboring Chihshan township.
Though Typhoon Trami caused serious flooding in Kaohsiung in July, the city got off lightly this time.
"We have been standing by," said Wu Hung-mo (吳宏謀), the director of Kaohsiung City Government's hydraulic engineering department. "We have 25 water pumping stations in the city. All of them are in perfect condition and we have workers on duty 24 hours. Add to this our computerized monitoring system and regular patrols -- yes, we can stop the water this time."
Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh also reminded workers to use caution when operating water pumps.
"Remember to take a break every now and then to prevent [the pumps] from overheating," Hsieh said. "In the meantime, the police and fire departments should prepare to add more lighting on road intersections if necessary."
Meanwhile, Taiwan Water Supply Corp asked its users in Kaohsiung County and City to be aware of possible lower water pressure or temporary water outages.
Due to heavy rain, water in the supply company's reservoir in the county's Chiahsien township has become muddied, forcing the company to lower water pressure and request additional supplies from neighboring Tainan County's Nanhua Reservoir.
The Hualien and Taitung regions did not report any injuries or damage yesterday.
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