Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said he would stay in close contact with the city government and its emergency response center about tropical storms in the region while on an 11-day trip to the US.
Chiang, who was last night scheduled to depart on a trip to New York, Boston and Philadelphia, yesterday morning attended a preparation meeting at the Taipei Emergency Response Center to discuss the possible effects of Typhoon Yagi and other tropical depressions on Taipei.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that Yagi is unlikely to directly affect Taiwan, but tropical depressions might form this week and next week, so Taipei should stay alert, Chiang said.
Photo: Liang Cheng-hui, Taipei Times
The city government reviews disaster relief operations after every typhoon to improve efficiency in disasters, he said.
As the Taipei Public Works Department’s Parks and Street Lights Office has assessed areas prone to falling trees, he has asked the department to take precautionary measures as soon as possible, he said.
He said he has also asked the department to continue improvement construction projects in low-lying areas that prone to flooding, especially in Xinyi District (信義), while the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection must continue its sewer dredging operations.
Asked by reporters if he would immediately return to Taiwan if a typhoon hits Taipei, as Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) did when Typhoon Gaemi swept over Taiwan in late July, Chiang said: “We will respond immediately.”
He said he would keep close contact with the city government and the emergency response center during his trip to the US and immediately respond should an emergency situation arise.
Meanwhile, after being questioned by prosecutors, Taipei Urban Planning Commission Executive Secretary Shao Hsiu-pei (邵琇珮) was on Tuesday barred from leaving the country and restricted to her residence over her alleged role in suspected corruption linked to the Core Pacific City redevelopment project.
When asked about Shao taking a leave of absence for a week, Chiang said the city government would cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, adding that he had adjusted her duties on Tuesday.
Reporters also asked the mayor to comment on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧) saying that the Taipei City Government should halt the Core Pacific City project before the court makes a ruling.
Chiang said that the city government would pay close attention to the case, and if a verdict is confirmed, the government would deal with it according to the law.
He said he has asked the Taipei Department of Urban Planning to prepare contingency plans for possible outcomes.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s