Flooding brought by Typhoon Doksuri killed one person and left two others stranded in a cave in eastern Taiwan, as the storm passed through the Bashi Channel.
A woman surnamed Wu (吳) was trapped and then drowned in the rising waters of the Mugua River (木瓜溪) near Wenlan Village (文蘭) in Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林), the Central Emergency Operation Center said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The victim’s son called the Hualien Fire Department at 6:02pm that day to report that Wu went out in the typhoon to check some water pipes, but was trapped by the flooded river, it said.
hoto courtesy of the Guanshan Maintenance Construction Office via CNA
Wu’s husband and a third unnamed person tried to help Wu out of the water, but became stranded themselves, the center said.
First responders arrived two hours later and rescued Wu’s husband and the third person, while Wu showed no sign of life upon being recovered, it said.
Wenlan Village Warden Tien Wen-tsai (田文才) told the Central News Agency that nearly all residents of the community had left following an evacuation order issued earlier that day.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, a British citizen and a Taiwanese woman were trapped in a cave near the Lisong Hot Spring (栗松溫泉) in Taitung County’s Haiduan Township (海端) after being stranded by rising waters at about 8am on Wednesday.
First responders could not extract the two from the cave due to dangerous conditions, but were able to give them food, water and batteries, the center said.
They remained trapped as of press time yesterday.
As of 6pm yesterday, Doksuri was moving north-northwest about 190km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) at 30kph, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The bureau’s land alert was to remain in effect in regions to the south of Miaoli County, and in Nantou, Hualien, Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Kimen counties until today, it said, advising ships to proceed with caution.
The storm yesterday brought 350mm of rain to Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung, bureau forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said.
Winds were expected to gather speed south of Taiwan proper yesterday evening, while stronger winds and heavier rainfall were forecast for Kinmen and Lienchiang counties as the storm approaches the outlying islands this morning, she said.
Kinmen and Penghu counties closed schools and offices today, as did Kaohsiung’s Namasia (那瑪夏), Maolin (茂林) and Taoyuan (桃源) districts.
Winds would begin to die down in Taiwan proper with the departure of the typhoon today, Chu said.
Meanwhile, bureau forecaster Huang En-hong (黃恩鴻) said that a tropical depression off Guam was expected to become Typhoon Khanun.
The typhoon would likely head toward Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and forecasts have not ruled out the possibility that Khanun might make landfall in Taiwan, he said.
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