Heavy rain over Taipei and New Taipei City yesterday afternoon flooded multiple areas in Daan (大安) and Xinyi (信義) districts, prompting the Taipei City Government to upgrade the alert status to level two.
Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) shared multiple pictures of flooding in Xinyi and urged the public to be careful.
People in Nangang District (南港) complained of flooding, saying that the water level in some areas was about half the height of a scooter and the amount of rain was reminiscent of a typhoon, KMT Taipei City Councilor Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢) said.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Heavy rains test the city’s drainage system, Lee said, calling on the city’s flood-related units to be on standby.
The Taipei City Government said that all four of its weather stations reported rainfall exceeding 100mm, and the Central Weather Administration had issued a heavy rain alert for Taipei and New Taipei City.
Although the convection cell was slowly moving out of Taipei in a northeasterly direction in the afternoon, Shilin (士林), Beitou (北投) and Neihu (內湖) districts still experienced sporadic rainfall, the Taipei City Government said.
Wenshan (文山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts also experienced heavy rainfall, while New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) issued a level one flood alert in the afternoon.
Flood alerts indicate when water levels reach the flooding point or the top of the dikes. Level two alerts mean it would take five hours before the flooding point is reached, while level one alerts indicate that it would take two hours.
Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) paused all ground staff activities at about 1:35pm and lifted the alert by 2:30pm.
Songshan Airport said that the pause in ground staff duties affected 15 flights and led to delays at airports serving it.
The Civil Aviation Administration urged travelers and those collecting people from airports to pay close attention for any changes in flight information.
The sudden heavy rain had “drowned” parts of Xinyi, and afterward, it became a “surfing area,” Taipei residents said.
Yesterday afternoon, people at Xinyi shopping district said the rain had inundated the district’s sky bridges and turned the pedestrian paths into “rivers.”
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