The Central Weather Bureau yesterday issued a land alert for Typhoon Doksuri, saying it posed a threat to residents in Taitung and Pingtung counties.
As of 7:15pm, the typhoon’s center was 400km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving northwest at 11kph. The maximum sustained wind speed reached 173kph, with the storm’s radius topping 300km.
A sea alert, which was issued on Monday, applies to vessels operating near the southeast coast of Taiwan proper, the Bashi Channel, Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙島) and south of the Taiwan Strait, while the land alert applies to Taitung, Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), said Lo Ya-yin (羅雅尹), a senior specialist at the bureau’s weather forecast center.
Philippine authorities yesterday evacuated hundreds of people in coastal communities as the typhoon intensified, pummeling the north with strong winds and heavy rains before it heads toward Taiwan and China.
Temperatures across Taiwan yesterday remained high at 35oC to 38oC. However, the storm’s outer band has brought rainfall to the nation’s south and east, as well as mountainous areas in southern Taiwan.
Today, chances of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall would be high on the east coast as the typhoon approaches Taiwan, Lo said, adding that cloudy to sunny skies are forecast for the west coast during the day.
Photo: CNA
Rainfall in southern Taiwan is expected to gradually increase from tonight to tomorrow morning, she said.
Wind speed on the Beaufort scale could today reach levels 10 to 11 on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島); levels 9 to 10 in Kinmen County and the Hengchun Peninsula; levels 8 to 9 in Taitung and Lienchiang counties; and levels 7 to 9 in Taoyuan and New Taipei City, she said.
The heaviest rainfall is forecast to occur in Hualien and Taitung counties, with accumulated rainfall likely to reach 700mm to 1,000mm in the mountainous areas in the next four days.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The bureau yesterday also detected 4m-high waves off the coasts of Lanyu, Green Island and Taitung, she said, adding that the waves could reach 6m today.
Doksuri is expected to enter the Bashi Channel today, move north along the southwest coast tomorrow before making landfall in China’s Fujian Province on Friday, Lo said.
Residents in the eastern and southern regions, as well as Penghu and Kinmen counties, should brace for rain and strong winds, but the typhoon is likely to have a smaller impact on those living in northern and central Taiwan, which is on the leeward side of the storm, she said.
“We will continue to monitor the typhoon’s path as it could move slightly north while passing near the southeast coast of Taiwan,” she said.
At press time last night, no cities or counties had declared a typhoon day.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS