Typhoon Mindulle yesterday weakened into a severe tropical storm after passing through the Philippines and southern Taiwan. However, residents of eastern and southern Taiwan should still expect heavy rains today, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The typhoon seemed to have had little impact on the nation's air and ground transportation, with only a few domestic and international flights cancelled today.
The storm however has caused a slight rise in vegetable prices, driven by people's anticipation of potential damage to the nation's agriculture.
"With the shield of the central mountain range [vertically across Taiwan], we do not expect much impact on our flights," Eva Air Corp's public relations specialist Eric Lin (
The carrier would cancel only three international flights between Kaohsiung and Macau today, while other flights would remain unaffected.
Cathay Pacific Airways said last night that it hadn't seen any obvious impact so far and would keep its flight schedules unchanged today, according to the carrier's corporate communication associate manager Mimi Chen (陳怡瑄).
UNI Airways Corp said flights departing from Taipei may be changed depending on the weather. Other flights on carriers like TransAsia Airways, Mandarin Airlines and Far East Air Transport Corp would run as scheduled.
People living in low-lying parts of the country in particular have to be alert to floods because Mindulle would pass Taiwan at the same time as a high spring tide, forecasters said.
According to Fred Tsai (蔡甫甸), a division chief at the bureau's Weather Forecast Center, Mindulle's slow speed made predictions a challenge.
The typhoon yesterday moved over the coastal areas of eastern Taiwan. A 15m lighthouse in Taitung was almost totally engulfed by waves. Strong winds and heavy rains brought by Mindulle led to an electricity blackout affecting more than 1,000 families.
In Taitung County, schools were forced to close and domestic air and sea traffic were disrupted. In Hualien, a river angler was reported missing.
Paul Chen (陳忠男), secretary general of the semi-official Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co, said the average wholesale price of vegetables rose slightly to NT$16 per kilogram yesterday, according to the company's figures.
People rushed to buy vegetables in anticipation of the typhoon, said Fiona Wang (王彤芳), marketing manager of RT-Mart, which saw sales of vegetables triple in outlets in Taitung.
The Joint College Entrance Examination (JCEE) will be held today as scheduled, the president of the College Entrance Examination Center said yesterday at 10pm.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS