Tropical Storm Fung-wong is continuing to weaken as its path shifts southward, but would still pose a serious threat to southern Taiwan and bring heavy rain to central and southern Taiwan later in the day, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
The eye of the storm is expected to pass over Taiwan's southern tip this evening, but its circle already enshrouded southern Taiwan this morning, posing a threat to Kaohsiung and Tainan, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, the CWA said.
Photo courtesy of the Suao Township Office
As of 10am, the storm's eye was about 140km west-southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost tip, moving east-northeast at 16kph and packing maximum sustained winds of up to 72kph and gusts of up to 101kph, the CWA said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
Eastern Taiwan would experience rain and the Keelung coast in the north may see heavy rain throughout today, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said.
Rainfall in central and southern Taiwan is to increase as the day progresses, and the greater Taipei area would see sporadic showers, with chances of localized heavy rain, she said.
From tonight to early tomorrow morning, rainfall would further increase along the Keelung coast and in central and southern Taiwan, Chu said.
From Monday at midnight to today at 6am, the CWA had recorded 1,061.5mm of rainfall in Yilan County's Dongaoling (東澳嶺), 752.5mm in New Taipei City's Dacukeng (大粗坑) and 549mm in Taipei's Qingtiangang (擎天崗).
Yesterday, several townships in Yilan County were inundated by torrential rainfall, with some roads in low-lying areas submerged under as much as 60cm of water.
In Dongshan Township (冬山), sections of the embankment along Ankeng Creek (安坑溪) were damaged by heavy rain, coming close to collapse, local authorities said.
Accumulated rainfall reached 660mm in Dongshan, CWA data showed.
Heavy rain also caused flooding up to 15cm deep on low-lying roads in Wujie (五結), Suao (蘇澳) and Luodong (羅東) townships, while flooding was even worse in parts of Dongshan, where water reached depths of at least 60cm, driving the county government to close affected roads.
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