The Ministry of Education's (MOE) preliminary estimate of the damage done to education facilities across Taiwan by Typhoon Danas was about NT$260 million (US$8.92 million) as of 6pm yesterday, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said today.
The ministry's K-12 Education Administration has launched emergency mechanisms and allocated funds to areas hit hardest by the typhoon, Cheng told reporters before a national education meeting in Chiayi City.
Of the funds disbursed, Tainan and Chiayi County each received NT$4.5 million, Chiayi City received NT$1.8 million, and Changhua County received NT$3 million, Cheng said.
Photo: CNA
He pledged to relay any requests for funding from other municipalities to the Executive Yuan, saying that he hoped schools could resume their operations as soon as possible.
Chiayi City Mayor Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠) said that more needed to be done as 31 schools were damaged by the disaster and an estimated NT$35 million would be needed for repairs.
The city government is working to restore power in areas experiencing power outages so that national examinations can run smoothly, Huang said.
She was referring to the Qualifying Examination for Senior Examinations and Qualifying Examination for Junior Examinations, which were scheduled to be held from Sunday last week through yesterday, but were postponed to start yesterday and end tomorrow because of the typhoon.
Huang urged cooperation between the central and local governments to address the problem.
Typhoon Danas made landfall in Chiayi County's Budai Township (布袋) late on Sunday, leaving two people dead and 502 injured, before weakening into a tropical storm early on Monday. It had moved north of Taiwan by Monday evening.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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