“Extremely torrential rain” brought by Typhoon Krathon, which weakened from a typhoon to a regular low-pressure system on Friday, caused two more deaths as of 8am yesterday, the Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) said.
The latest people to be confirmed dead were a husband and wife from New Taipei’s Jinshan District (金山).
So far, four people have died, 714 have been injured and one individual is still unaccounted for, the CEOC said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The couple went missing on Friday night following “extremely torrential rain” in the district, New Taipei Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday.
They were swept away by rising floodwaters and drowned after the water levels of a stream in the district had risen, he said.
A sighting of the body of the 65-year-old man was reported by residents at 6:03am yesterday, the area’s local fire bureau said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Facebook page of the hospital branch’s superintendent, Tsai Jaw-shiun
The bureau added that the body of the 51-year-old woman was discovered about 50 minutes later.
The lingering effects of Krathon drenched Jinshan in 527mm of rain in just 12 hours and 625mm in 24 hours, the most disastrous catastrophe to hit the district in the past few decades, Hou said.
Meanwhile, doctors at the Jinshan branch of National Taiwan University Hospital were forced to use inflatable boats to switch shifts after the torrential rain caused severe flooding in Jinshan on Friday, branch superintendent Tsai Jaw-shiun (蔡兆勳) said in a Facebook post.
The sheer amount of precipitation from Krathon in such a short period also affected most of the coastal districts in New Taipei.
The heavy rain caused several traffic disruptions that led to three elementary schools and one high school in the northern city keeping their students inside the school for their safety after class on Friday.
More than 180 students, faculty and staff from Zhongjiao Elementary School, Jinshan Elementary School, Jinmei Elementary School and Jinshan High School were forced to stay behind, New Taipei’s Education Department said.
The elementary school students were picked up by their families at approximately 1am yesterday after the rain eased, the education department said.
Meanwhile, the 46 students at Jinshan High School were able to return home by 7:30am, it added.
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