Typhoon Conson, whose outer edge reached Hengchun Peninsula in the southernmost part of Taiwan early yesterday morning, shifted eastward at noon, posing less of a direct threat to the nation, the Central Weather Bureau reported.
As a result, the bureau lifted land warnings for Typhoon Conson at 5:30pm yesterday, saying the typhoon had left the Taiwan area and was located at sea 190km north of Orchid island (as of 5pm) and was moving at a speed of 30kph in a northeasterly direction.
The bureau had originally issued warnings against gusty winds and torrential rains in the Bashi Channel, the Tungsha (Pratas) Islands and Taiwan's southeastern offshore areas, including Orchid Island and Green Island, until late today.
Bureau officials said that the Bashi Channel and the seas off eastern and northern Taiwan were still under the influence of the fourth typhoon formed in the Pacific this year. However, as of press time, the bureau expected to lift sea warnings yesterday evening at the earliest.
The typhoon has brought ample rain to northeastern Taiwan, the officials said, adding that Tungshan in Ilan had 228mm as of 5:30pm and Lotung 200mm.
Conson, with a radius of 150km and maximum sustained winds of up to 120kph, was centered about 60km south-southeast of Orchid Island off southeast Taiwan at 11am yesterday, moving northeasterly at a speed of 17kph to 15kph, the bureau reported.
With the typhoon's course shifting slightly eastward and its speed slowing, Conson's outer edge is expected to move off Taiwan by nightfall as the typhoon sweeps through the ocean corridor along the east of the country, bureau meteorologists said.
While students and employees on Orchid Island were given the day off due to the typhoon, no major accidents occurred due to the weather. The Typhoon Conson Disaster Response Center in Taitung County recorded no injuries within its jurisdiction except for one minor injury on Orchid Island.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS