Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) yesterday called on young people from southern Taiwan to return home and help family and friends with post-typhoon relief work during a visit to Chiayi City, which was badly hit by Typhoon Danas.
Hsiao encouraged young people studying outside southern Taiwan to return home during the ongoing school summer vacation to help family and friends still reeling from the typhoon's impact a week ago.
Photo courtesy of Jiuhua Mountain Temple
The vice president was in Chiayi to attend a ceremony held by the Jiuhua Mountain Temple, where NT$10 million (US$341,892) was donated to local authorities to help recovery work in the aftermath of Danas.
Half of the donation went to the Chiayi City Government, and the other half to the Chiayi County Government.
Danas made landfall in Chiayi County at 11:40pm on Sunday last week, the first time the eye of a typhoon reached Chiayi since comprehensive weather records began in 1958.
Although Danas weakened and was downgraded to a low-pressure system, it brought moist southwesterly winds that caused several days of heavy rain in southern Taiwan, hampering recovery efforts.
The first named storm to hit Taiwan this Pacific typhoon season also brought down a record 2,454 power poles, leaving up to 997,574 homes without electricity, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said.
As of 6pm yesterday, Taipower data showed 9,169 households across Taiwan were still without power.
The company on Thursday said that many of these households were in remote areas, and it took longer to restore power to all affected households than in previous natural disaster-caused blackouts.
During her visit to Chiayi, Hsiao also donated blood at a blood drive organized by the temple, amid an appeal made by the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation for central and southern Taiwan.
The overall blood inventory at the blood center in Kaohsiung, which handles blood supply for Chiayi City and County, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and the counties of Pingtung and Taitung, are expected to last 5.8 days — below the safety level of seven to 10 days, the foundation said in a statement yesterday.
Reserves are also enough for 5.8 days at the blood center in Taichung, which is responsible for the city and counties of Nantou, Changhua and Yunlin, said the foundation, which attributed the low levels to the days of rain and people being busy with post-typhoon cleanup work.
The foundation urged people to donate blood as the weather improves in the region.
The blood center in Taipei has an inventory of 6.9 days in the region covering greater Taipei, Keelung, and Yilan and Hualien counties, while the blood center in Hsinchu for Taoyuan, Hsinchu City and County, and Miaoli County has reserves for 9.1 days, the foundation 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