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.
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