Flooding caused by Tropical Storm Mindulle in central and southern parts of the nation has caused further calamity, with more deaths and damage reported from disaster areas yesterday. However, the heavy rains would continue until tomorrow, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
According to the central government's July 2 Flood Disaster Relief Center, at 5pm yesterday the death toll increased to 21, while 14 people remained missing. Three newly-reported deaths included two unidentified bodies that were retrieved in Hoping and Tungshih townships in Taichung County.
The Council of Agriculture yesterday said that the accumulated agricultural losses had exceeded NT$3.3 billion.
PHOTO: LIN KUO-HSIEN, TAIPEI TIMES
Weather forecasters yesterday warned that people living in mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan need to be alert for landslides, mud flows, flooding and lightning strikes today and tomorrow. Heavy rain might also affect the north of the country today.
In the last three days, cumulative rainfall at 40 monitoring stations in central and southern counties exceeded 1,000mm. At one station in Hsinan, Kaohsiung County, total rainfall for the last three days exceeded 2,000mm.
Taiwan's annual rainfall is about 2,500mm.
In stricken central counties, several major roads remained closed. Yesterday morning, Air Force helicopters began evacuating 1,000 people from mountainous Hoping township to military barracks or urban areas.
Victims had been sheltering at Poai Elementary School since Saturday when Mindulle struck. But rising riverwater inundated the school early yesterday morning, making it impossible for people to remain there.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday inspected affected townships in Nantou County, but ran into complaints from residents, who said the post-disaster distribution of materials was unsatisfactory.
"I've demanded that rescue and reconstruction efforts be performed immediately in all affected areas," Yu told residents.
After inspecting the county's seriously damaged Nuomi Bridge, which was built over a century ago, Yu promised to restore the historic monument as soon as possible.
In Shuili township, hundreds of hectares of grape vines were inundated with water after a 200m breach occurred in a protective embankment on the Chenyulan River.
Grape farmers complained to Yu about past government attempts to dredge the river. Crying loudly, one female farmer knelt before Yu and cried, "everything is gone."
At press time, thousands of residents in remote townships in Nantou, Chiayi and Taichung counties remained cut off.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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