Torrential rains from a passing tropical storm shut down a swathe of southern Taiwan today, forcing more than 5 million people to stay home from work or school.
Typhoon Mekkhala, now a tropical storm and nearing southern Japan's Ryukyu Islands, did not make direct landfall in Taiwan, but its outer bands brought heavy rain to parts of the nation, especially Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung in the south.
The governments of all three regions, where more than 5 million people live, ordered offices and schools closed today.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Severe flooding in Tainan shut down a section of the main north-south railway line.
No casualties have been reported, but authorities in Hualien County are evacuating nearly 200 residents from Fonglin (鳳林) and Wanrong (萬榮) townships, which are downstream of a rapidly filling barrier lake in the mountains.
Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage.
Last year, 19 people died in Hualien’s Guangfu Township (光復) when another barrier lake burst during Super Typhoon Ragasa, unleashing a wall of water and mud into homes.
Rain is forecast to continue across Taiwan for at least the next week, though it would gradually ease.
Precipitation is not all bad news for Taiwan, which relies on the traditional summer and autumn typhoon season to fill up its reservoirs after what are typically dry winters.
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Typhoon Mekkhala is likely to come closest to Taiwan on Thursday, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA), which forecast localized rain or thundershowers in western and northeastern parts of the country for that day. As of 2pm yesterday, the eye of the storm was 770km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost point of Taiwan, as it continued to move toward waters east of the Philippines, the agency said. Mekkhala was expected to become a severe typhoon last night, CWA forecaster Lai Hsin-kuo (賴欣國) said. A severe typhoon has maximum wind speeds of more than 184kph, compared with 118kph to 183kph for a
Tropical Storm Mekkhala is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon tomorrow and could come close enough to Taiwan later in the week to prompt a sea warning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2 pm, the storm was located 1,870 kilometers southeast of Taiwan's southern tip and moving west- northwest at 23 km per hour. CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said Mekkhala is expected to continue moving west-northwest through Tuesday under the influence of the Pacific high- pressure system before gradually turning north toward waters east of Taiwan or south of the Ryukyu Islands. The timing and angle of the
YELLOW ALERT: Work and classes are to be suspended in 10 districts in Kaohsiung, and residents in areas in Hualien County have been evacuated over flood risk, officials said The combined influence of Tropical Storm Mekkhala and the southwest jetstream brought torrential rainfall to Taiwan, with severe flooding reported in Taipei and multiple other regions. Today, work and classes are to be suspended in 10 districts of Kaohsiung — Namasiya (那瑪夏), Taoyuan (桃源), Jiaxian (甲仙), Liugui (六龜), Maolin (茂林), Meinong (美濃), Qishan (旗山), Neimen (內門), Shanlin (杉林) and Tianliao (田寮) — while Pingtung County would suspend work and classes across the entire county. Meanwhile, residents of seven areas in Hualien County’s Fonglin (鳳林) and Wanrong (萬榮) townships were to be evacuated yesterday, after a flood alert was issued for a
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