Two people died and more than 500 were injured after typhoon Danas made landfall in Chiayi County at 11:40pm on Sunday, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday.
A 60-year-old person, surnamed Chen (陳), who was on a ventilator died in Tainan after their home lost power, while a man in Tainan, also surnamed Chen, died after the farm vehicle he was operating struck a fallen tree on the road.
As of 2pm yesterday, local governments had reported that 502 people sustained injuries, 317 of whom were in Tainan and 141 in Chiayi City.
Photo: by Johnson Liu, AFP
A total of 5,205 infrastructure damage reports were filed as of yesterday afternoon, including 2,444 from Tainan and 1,141 from Chiayi County.
Flooding was reported at 210 locations nationwide at one point, all of which had receded by yesterday afternoon.
More than 660,000 households lost power after high-voltage transmission towers on the west coast sustained some of the worst damage in decades. As of 2pm yesterday, about 400,000 households were still without power, most of which were in Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Chiayi and Yunlin counties.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan Power Co said it aims to fully restore power by 11pm today.
Landline telephone service to 12,278 households was disrupted, 3,931 of which were still without service. Meanwhile, 1,305 base stations were damaged, 832 of which had been repaired.
Telecoms said that mobile phone and landline services would be fully restored by tomorrow and Thursday respectively.
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
At one point, water was unavailable for more than 73,000 households in Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Chiayi and Taitung counties. Service was fully restored at 2:17pm.
Danas has caused an estimated NT$257.16 million (US$8.9 million) in agricultural losses, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
Tainan was the worst hit, reporting agricultural losses of more than NT$210.24 million, followed by NT$22.3 million in Chiayi County and NT$20.83 million in Yunlin County.
Photo: Johnson Liu, AFP
Taiwanese pomelo producers reported losses of NT$118.40 million, the worst for a single crop, followed by longan fruit, mandarin oranges, sweet corn and bananas.
A total of 3,720 people were forced to evacuate from 11 administrative regions, including Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Hualien, Hsinchu, Yunlin, Nantou, Chiayi, Pingtung and Taitung counties.
Twenty-two temporary shelters were opened during the typhoons, accommodating 180 people.
About 5,700 of 8,000 tourists stranded in Penghu County returned to Taiwan proper yesterday. As of yesterday afternoon, 734 tourists remained in Lienchiang County (Matsu), 209 on Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球), 536 on Green Island (綠島) and 78 on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼). None of them requested emergency supplies or shelter.
The archway of Tainan’s Nankunshen Daitian Temple (南鯤鯓代天府), a national heritage site built in 1662, collapsed under strong winds.
The ornamental archway, which was built in 1982 with 12 cypress pillars and granite bases, was the largest five-gate traditional archway in Asia.
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and Taiwan Railway Corp resumed normal services after the storm moved away from Taiwan proper. Taoyuan International Airport Corp cautioned travelers to monitor their flight times for potential changes before arriving at the airport.
Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League postponed two games, and said that four games would be played at different venues after the roofs of stadiums in Tainan and Chiayi County were damaged in the typhoon.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday lifted land and sea alerts for typhoons at 11:30am and 5:30pm respectively.
Historic weather data from the state-run agency showed that Danas was the first typhoon to land in Chiayi County since the agency began collecting data in 1958.
The storm lingered in Taiwan proper for about six hours before heading to sea from between Taoyuan and Hsinchu County at 6am yesterday.
The strongest winds, reaching level 17 on the Beaufort scale, were measured in Yunlin County, the CWA said.
The highest rainfall was reported in Pingtung County, which accumulated 658mm of rain since Saturday, it said.
Although the typhoon has significantly weakened and was headed toward China, people in Taiwan should be cautious of rain brought by a large low-pressure system that continues to hover over the nation, CWA senior specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
A British man was arrested for attempting to smuggle 14.37kg of marijuana into Taiwan through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Customs said late yesterday. The man, who arrived from Bangkok at 9pm on Friday, was asked by customs officers to open his luggage during a random inspection, Taipei Customs said in a news release. The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, refused to open his suitcase and tried to flee the restricted area. He was eventually subdued by three customs officials and an Aviation Police Bureau officer. A later search of his checked luggage uncovered 14.37kg of marijuana buds. The case was handed over
RSS