The combination of an afternoon thunderstorm and a ruptured water pipe yesterday caused serious flooding at Terminal 2 of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for the second time in less than a month.
Taoyuan International Airport Corp, which runs the airport, said the pipe in the airport’s A13 MRT station in the basement of the terminal burst, leading to a cascade of water from the ceiling to the floor below.
Airport staff used sandbags to stem the flow of water and got to work to clear the water.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
However, unlike the earlier incident, the food court on the same floor was not affected, nor was the power and air-conditioning system.
After a thunderstorm warning was issued at 3:54pm, ground operations at the airport were temporarily suspended, delaying several flights, the company said.
Flooding was also reported in some areas of Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan after the storm.
The Central Weather Bureau said that its Pateh station in Taoyuan had recorded a maximum precipitation of 117 millimeters between 3:10 pm and 4:10pm.
The Taiwan Railways Administration also reported some disruptions cause by flooding, saying that water on the Taoyuan-Yingge (鶯歌) West Line rose above the rails, while trains running on the Sanjia (山佳)-Yingge East Line had to slow down to 5kph due to flooding.
As for the June 2 flooding incident at the airport, a Public Construction Commission investigation later determined that it had been caused by a blockage in one of the airport’s drain pipelines, which had prevented the rapid discharge of floodwater into the Pusin River (埔心溪).
The commission also found that a failure to promptly close a floodgate at an underpass leading to the basement of Terminal Two led to the building’s basement flooding.
The Taoyuan International Airport Corp said financial losses caused by the June 2 flooding was more than NT$50 million (US$1.54 million), including damage to facilities and compensation fort the delayed delivery of their luggage.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include
RSS