More than 900 residents in two villages along the Liwu River (立霧溪) in Hualien County were evacuated yesterday amid warnings that a new landslide-formed barrier lake in Taroko National Park could overflow.
A total of 384 people in 120 households from Fushih Village (富世) and 564 people in 179 households from Sioulin Village (秀林), both in Sioulin Township (秀林), were evacuated to a dormitory of Asia Cement Corp and a school, the township office said.
The evacuation followed reports of rising water levels in a barrier lake that formed after a landslide near the Swallow Grotto Trail (燕子口步道) in Taroko National Park, discovered earlier yesterday by construction workers.
Photo courtesy of the Highway Bureau
The lake and landslide dam are near the 175.5km mark of the Central Cross-Island Highway, known as Provincial Highway No. 8, outside Jin Heng Tunnel (靳珩隧道), the Directorate-General of Highways’ Eastern Region Branch said.
If the lake were to overflow, floodwaters could reach Jinwen Bridge (錦文橋) near the park entrance within 50 minutes, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hualien Office said.
As of about 5pm, the dam was holding an estimated 270 tonnes of water, enough to raise water levels at Jinwen Bridge by about 5m, tapering to about 2m further downstream where the riverbed widens, it said.
The section of Provincial Highway No. 8 between Taroko National Park and Tiansiang (天祥) was closed from 6pm yesterday until further notice, the Highway Bureau’s Eastern Region Branch Office said.
Floodwaters from the barrier lake could reach the road by about 7pm, the office said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a weather system near Guam could strengthen into a tropical depression and become a tropical storm today.
Forecast models indicate the system is likely to move through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and Luzon in the northern Philippines before tracking west toward China’s Hainan Province, bringing rain across Taiwan from tomorrow, the CWA said.
Last month, a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in Hualien burst during Super Typhoon Ragasa, flooding Guangfu Township (光復).
As of yesterday, official figures showed that the disaster left 19 people dead and 157 injured, with five people still missing and 717 rescued, data released on Tuesday showed.
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