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.
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