The risk of flooding in Taroko National Park was reduced early yesterday, as water from the Liwu River (立霧溪) barrier lake began flowing back into its original channel, local authorities said.
The lake had filled up to its capacity of 2.7 million tonnes of water due to recent heavy rains, and an overflow could have hit downstream villages, roads and bridges.
Engineers plan to use excavators during the day to carefully breach parts of the landslide dam and direct the remaining water downstream, said the Directorate General of Highways (DGH), and the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hualien Office.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hualien office
Images from the DGH showed that at about 2:30am, water from the barrier lake had overflowed onto the west entrance of Jin Heng Tunnel (靳珩隧道) on Provincial Highway No. 8, and flowed through the tunnel and eventually rejoined the Liwu River, bleeding off overflow and significantly reducing the threat to downstream areas.
By 6am, the flow had stabilized, with water visibly draining along both sides of the road back into the riverbed, the office said.
To ensure long-term safety, three excavators are to be deployed along the old Highway No. 8 to excavate near the upper edge of the dam and create a controlled drainage channel, said Huang Chun-tse (黃群策), head of the Hualien office.
A disaster prevention team from National Cheng Kung University specializing in landslide dams arrived on-site yesterday morning to conduct detailed measurements and data collection.
The team is reassessing the dam’s structure and potential impact zones to provide real-time safety assessments for the park and nearby settlements, the office said.
However, as a red alert remains in effect, Taroko National Park remains closed until authorities confirm that conditions are fully secure, the park administration said.
A barrier lake forms when debris from an earthquake, heavy rainfall or a landslide blocks a river and creates a natural dam. Such natural dams are often loosely structured, making them prone to erosion and collapse, especially as water accumulates, potentially causing catastrophic damage downstream, as was the case in the deadly flooding that occurred in Hualien County’s Guangfu Township (光復) last month.
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