Torrential rain that began on Saturday night has caused flooding in central and southern parts of the country, damaging roads and forcing more than 500 people to evacuate.
The Pingtung County Fire Department helped move six elderly residents from a nursing home in Gaoshu Township (高樹) as a surging river threatened to flood the area.
The only access to the county’s Wutai Township (霧台) was cut off by landslides on two sections of Highway No. 24. The electrical grid in Wutai was also damaged by rain.
Photo: Lo Hsin-chen, Taipei Times
Residents in Sihgou Village (泗溝) in Wanluan Township (萬巒) had to wade through thigh-high floodwater to leave.
Laiyi Township (來義) also evacuated residents.
The Directorate-General of Highways closed the makeshift road on the Central Cross-Island Highway after a huge landslide was reported at section 79K of the highway.
Three farmers who were picking vegetables at the time fled to avoid injury.
Between 12am and 7pm yesterday, Shangdewen (上德文) in Sandimen Township (三地門) in Pingtung received 504mm of rain. Dahanshan (大漢山) in Chunrih Township (春日) and Weiliaoshan (尾寮山) in Sandimen Township had accumulations of 458mm and 412mm respectively.
All the locations had what the Central Weather Bureau defines as extremely torrential rain — meaning that accumulated rainfall reached 350mm within a period of 24 hours.
Because the rain is expected to continue, the Executive Yuan has asked the public to avoid mountainous or coastal areas during this period of time.
Southern parts of the country can expect extremely heavy rain over the next two days, while the weather in other parts of Taiwan will also be rainy due to an air front from the southwest, the bureau said.
Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) has asked relevant ministries to take precautionary measures and support local governments if rescue efforts are needed, the Cabinet said in a statement yesterday.
Two emergency response centers have been opened in southern Taiwan, and the Council of Agriculture has a task force on standby to respond to mudslides, the Cabinet said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs also has a task force ready to distribute water pumps in the event of flooding, it added.
The public is urged to avoid traveling near waterways, the Cabinet said.
In northern and northeastern areas of the country, afternoon thundershowers can be expected for the next two days, it said.
Kaohsiung and Pingtung could continue to experience extremely heavy showers, with up to 350mm of rainfall possible within a 24 hour period, the bureau said.
Heavy rain could also be expected in northern Taiwan after tomorrow, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS