Hualien County's Taroko National Park remains closed to the public as excavation work on a roadside barrier lake continues, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA) said today.
The risk posed by the landslide dam on the Liwu River (立霧溪) led to the evacuation of more than 900 residents and the closures of Taroko and part of Provincial Highway No. 8 on Friday last week.
After last night's rainfall, the barrier lake's water level rose from 4.8m below the top of the dam the previous day to 2.94m below, Huang Chun-tse (黃群策), head of FANCA's Hualien Office, told reporters this morning.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency
Huang said that current operations at the lake focus on clearing out operation space for workers to evacuate to in case flooding endangers workers and the machinery.
The ultimate goal is to dig down 10m of the dam's upper edge so that it is lower than the highway to reduce the dam body's threat, he said.
As rocks keep falling during excavation, the operation is being broken up into stages and it is unclear when they will be completed, he added.
Meanwhile, heavy rain advisories in effect from this morning through early tomorrow morning were issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA).
Torrential rain advisories, warning of rainfall exceeding 350mm in 24 hours or more than 200mm in three hours, were issued for Keelung and mountainous areas of Taipei, New Taipei City and Yilan County.
Extremely heavy rains that exceed 200mm in 24 hours or 100mm in three hours are forecast for Taipei, New Taipei City and Yilan County, as well as mountainous areas in Taoyuan and Hsinchu County.
In Taoyuan, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County and Hualien County, the CWA issued heavy rain advisories warning of rainfall expected to exceed 80mm within 24 hours or 40mm in one hour.
CWA forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping (官欣平) said that the rain would be heaviest today and tomorrow, but precipitation may persist into Friday or Saturday.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
RSS