Extremely heavy rainfall brought by a frontal system pummeled northern Taiwan yesterday morning, severely disrupting operations at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and affecting more than 200 flights.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that the thunderstorms, which lasted for more than two hours, as well as overflow from the Pusin River (埔心溪), had caused flooding at the two traffic underpasses leading to the airport terminals.
Because of the flooding in the underpasses, motorists traveling to and from the airport were asked to use Provincial Highway No. 4, rather than the usual route, Freeway No. 2.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Rainwater also leaked through the ceiling of Terminal Two and caused flooding in its underground food court.
Air navigation facilities on Datunshan (大屯山), in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), which are used to guide air traffic into the airport, were also affected by the thunderstorms, forcing Air Navigation and Weather Services to activate a backup system in order to continue with air traffic control procedures.
By 1:30pm, 88 flights arriving at the airport and 131 departure flights had been affected by the weather, including two flights that were forced to land at airports in Kaohsiung and Taichung.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
After pumping out the floodwater, the airport reopened its main access routes at 6:13pm.
Passengers were crowded in the lobby of Terminal Two last night due to a backlog of delayed flights and an incomplete resumption of the power supply inside the terminal.
In response to the worst flooding since the airport opened in 1979, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) ordered the ministry to identify the causes of the flooding, adding that it must also identify those who should be held accountable.
Photo: CNA
“Lin was upset, because the airport is the gateway of the nation, and the flood caused a lot of trouble to the public,” Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said. “The premier said that apparently there are serious problems with the construction [of the third terminal] at the airport, and asked the ministry to investigate — if there are human factors involved, then those people should be held responsible as well,” Tung said.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that the ministry would deal with the issue of overflow from the Pusin River with assistance from the Water Resources Agency and the Taoyuan City Government.
He said that Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) needs to reinforce its ability to handle flooding at the airport, including the use of water pumps and power generators.
Photo: CNA, screengrab from Facebook
“TIAC must learn to coordinate with the Taoyuan City Government and its police department to facilitate access to the airport when flooding occurs,” Wang said.
The Taoyuan City Government dismissed claims from TIAC that the overflow from the Pusin River had clogged the airport’s drainage system with trash and tree branches.
However, Wang said that now is not the time to be looking for someone to blame.
“The most important thing is to solve the problem,” he said.
Wang said that 153mm of rain had poured into Taoyuan within three hours yesterday morning.
The Central Weather Bureau said that rainfall in Taoyuan yesterday morning accounted for about 8 percent of the city’s average annual rainfall, which is about 1,930mm.
The bureau said that the heavy rain was caused by a convection system, which moved slowly and caused heavy rainfall between 9:30am and 11:30am.
Additional Reporting by Loa Ioksin
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
RSS