All administrative regions except for Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan canceled work and classes for today, as eastern and southern Taiwan braced for the heaviest impact of Typhoon Koinu.
According to a Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast, southern and eastern Taiwan would be the worst affected by rainfall brought by Koinu, with extremely heavy rain expected in Hualien and Taitung counties, on the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) and in mountainous areas of Pingtung County, reaching more than 200mm within a day or more than 100mm within a three-hour period.
Other parts of Taiwan are also expected to experience heavy rainfall as the typhoon approaches, said the CWA, which issued heavy rain advisories for most of the country in effect until tonight.
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
As of 8:30pm, Koinu was 118km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and was moving westward at 10kph, CWA data showed.
With a radius of 250km, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, forecasters said.
The storm might tilt south as it passes over land, and its eye is likely to pass somewhere between southern Taiwan and the Bashi Channel around noon today, it said.
Winds between levels 9 and 11 on the Beaufort scale were expected in coastal areas south of Taoyuan, along the east coast and on outlying islands, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said.
Level 13 winds were recorded yesterday on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as the storm passed over, while Level 10 winds were recorded in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) and Dongyi (東吉) in Penghu County, she said.
Waves of at least 5m along the Keelung, eastern and southwestern coasts, as well as the Hengchun Peninsula are expected through today, and could reach as high as 7m in some areas, Chu said.
Although winds had grown stronger by 7pm, only Hualien County has seen prominent rainfall, the CWA said.
There were no reports of significant damage as of press time last night.
Taichung had experienced Level 9 winds, resulting in 83 reports of fallen trees as of 3pm, although no one was reported injured.
Tainan experienced some wind and drizzle, with a four-story-tall temple structure in Cigu District (七股) being blown over yesterday morning, while the Workforce Development Agency’s Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan Regional Branch reported that a three-story-tall tree had been blown down.
More than 100 international and domestic flights had been canceled, while ferry services to outlying islands were suspended.
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