Following disruptions caused by Typhoon Danas, Chunghwa Telecom expects to restore phone, broadband and MOD services today, and complete equipment repairs at the end of next month, an official said yesterday.
Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, Chunghwa Telecom chairman Chien Chih-cheng (簡志誠) said that full repairs to 33 damaged base stations would be completed by the end of next month, while temporary base stations have been deployed to provide network coverage for the time being.
As of Thursday last week, 2,141 households in the so-called Chianan area — which broadly covers Tainan, Chiayi city and county, and Yunlin County — still had no landline service, while 764 broadband connections were down, data provided by the state-run telecom company showed.
Photo: Screengrab from the Legislative Yuan’s TV
National Communications Commission (NCC) Acting Chairman Chen Chung-shu (陳崇樹) told lawmakers that more than 30 mobile base station vehicles were operating daily in these areas.
The nation’s three main mobile telecom operators are offering affected users 300 free call minutes per month for two months and have introduced additional support measures, he said.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Chueh Her-ming (闕河鳴) said the ministry would assist companies in purchasing mobile vehicles equipped with satellite terminal equipment, with each operator planning to buy three.
The ministry would also subsidize related equipment, including satellite terminal racks, domestic routers, firewalls and Wi-Fi access points, and support retrofitting of 31 existing vehicles, he said.
Power outages disrupted many base stations, and telecom companies have agreed to buy more than 200 portable generators to restore service in blackout zones, he said.
The ministry and the NCC would prioritize the construction of high-resilience base stations with 72-hour backup power and promote shared-infrastructure base stations using Taiwan Power substations, he said.
Underground cabling solutions would be studied for disaster-prone areas and evacuation shelters, among other technical measures, he added.
Meanwhile, 303 households remained without electricity as of yesterday morning, following days of heavy rain and flooding in central and southern areas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Power had been cut to 50,671 homes due to the downpours, it said, adding that repair work would resume once roads are reopened or floodwater is drained from underground structures.
To support local governments in clearing standing water, the Water Resources Agency has deployed 47 mobile pumps, it said.
The Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) held a work meeting yesterday morning chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Tu Wen-jane (杜文珍).
Tu instructed the center’s medical and environmental teams to “fully support” local governments in disease prevention efforts and to ensure a rapid response to health concerns.
Forty shelters remain in operation across six counties and cities, currently housing 636 people, including 359 in Kaohsiung and 218 in Pingtung County, the center said.
A total of 5,925 people were evacuated, it said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that no unusual outbreaks or cluster infections have occurred.
However, the agency warned that exposure to contaminated or stagnant water or sludge as people clean their homes could lead to diseases such as leptospirosis, melioidosis or dengue fever.
The CDC urged the public to wear appropriate protective gear, pay attention to food hygiene and eliminate mosquito-breeding sources.
It added that 150,307 bottles of disinfectant have been stockpiled for use in disaster-affected areas.
The CEOC said alerts for debris flows and large-scale landslides remained in effect.
Ten sections of Taiwan’s provincial highways were closed as a precautionary measure, five were blocked due to damage and one additional disaster-related road incident was reported.
Repairs on Provincial Highways Nos. 16 and 20 were expected to be completed yesterday, the CEOC said, adding that traffic controls would be lifted once conditions are deemed safe.
Meanwhile, search-and-rescue operations continued along the Southern Cross-Island Highway (Provincial Highway No. 20), where a vehicle had fallen into a valley.
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