A section of the Central Cross-Island Highway yesterday morning reopened to traffic after workers cleared a rockslide caused by torrential rains on Friday night.
Debris from the rockslide, which occurred at about 1am in Taichung’s Lileng (裡冷) and cut off traffic in both directions, was removed by maintenance workers, allowing traffic to resume at 9:25am, the Directorate General of Highways said in a news release.
Separately, a 3-tonne boulder fell on the coastal Huhai Road near Keelung’s Waimushan (外木山) at about 5:40am, blocking traffic before being cleared at 8:20am, city officials said.
Photo courtesy of Majia Mayor Liang Ming-hui
The Taiwan Railways Administration at 8:40am halted service on the Shenao Line due to a tree that fell on the tracks between Haikeguan Station (海科館) and Badouzi Station (八斗子), the agency said.
Service has since been restored in both directions, the agency’s app showed.
No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
Traffic disruptions followed a plum rain front that affected most of Taiwan on Friday, dumping up to 350mm of rain in southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The waning weather system yesterday moved south toward the Bashi Channel, the bureau added.
Still, Tainan and Kaohsiung as well as Pingtung and Taitung counties saw heavy rain, and mountainous areas of Pingtung received extremely heavy rain, it said.
The bureau defines heavy rain as accumulated rainfall exceeding 80mm in a 24-hour period, extremely heavy rain as accumulated rainfall of exceeding 200mm; and torrential rain as accumulated rainfall of 350mm or more.
Mostly cloudy skies and slightly higher temperatures are forecast nationwide for today and tomorrow, although the risk of localized showers and thunderstorms would remain in the south, the bureau said.
From tomorrow afternoon, the weather system is expected to move north again, bringing showers and thunderstorms, as well as the risk of severe weather in much of the nation on Tuesday and Wednesday, the bureau said.
More than 3,000 people in the mountainous areas of Kaohsiung yesterday remained under evacuation orders amid fears of mudslides.
As of 6am, 3,485 Kaohsiung residents had been evacuated, including 1,056 from Namasiya District (那瑪夏), 842 from Liouguei District (六龜) and 758 from Taoyuan District (桃源), the Kaohsiung Civil Affairs Bureau said.
The city, which has set up a disaster response unit to deal with the rain damage, said it would wait until landslide warnings are lifted before assessing whether it is safe for the evacuees to return to their homes.
The Pingtung County Government has estimated that agricultural losses from the rain would exceed NT$8 million (US$266,587), after extensive damage was reported to the county’s rice, bitter melon and luffa crops.
Four townships and 10 villages in the county remained under red alert for landslides, which are issued by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau when measured rainfall exceeds an area’s warning threshold for debris flows.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight