One person died and 304 were injured after southern Taiwan was pummeled by strong winds and heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Koinu since Wednesday, the Central Emergency Operations Center said yesterday.
An 80-year-old woman in Taichung died from severe bleeding caused by a cut by broken glass blown by the typhoon, the center said.
Nearly 330,000 households reported power outages, and 70,000 of them were still waiting for power supply as of 2:30pm, it said.
Photo: Sean CHANG, AFP
The center also received 1,251 reports of damage to road trees and 763 reports of infrastructure damage.
Typhoon Koinu also devastated outlying Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), with 90 percent of the boats docked at the island’s Kaiyuan Harbor having capsized or disappeared.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said that its three anemometers in Lanyu were broken after detecting a gust of 95.2m per second, which exceeded Level 17 on the Beaufort scale.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration via CNA
The gust set a new record since the anemometers began to measure wind speeds in Taiwan in 1897, the CWA said.
Lanyu Township Office head Hsieh Hu-yuan (謝胡源) told the Central News Agency that the typhoon had done severe damage to the island’s infrastructure.
“The township office was flooded. The electricity supply was almost out completely. The main road around the island was inaccessible. Flights and ferries to and from the island were canceled, and homes and boats of civilians were severely damaged. Fortunately, we do not have injured people who need to be transported to Taiwan proper,” Hsieh said, adding that the township would strive to make the highway accessible as soon as the wind and rain ease,
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
Former legislator Lai Kun-cheng (賴坤成) also posted photographs taken by a friend in Lanyu on Facebook, showing how the typhoon damaged vehicles, houses and a gas station.
“We have yet to reach some friends who live in two villages at the windward side. Hope everyone in Lanyu and Taitung survive the disaster,” Lai said.
Lanyu Senior High School also reported severe damage to its facilities.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
“The roaring waves lasted all night, and it was difficult for people to walk to the township office with all the reef rocks on the highway,” school principal Lien Wen-chien (連紋乾) said.
A bed-and-breakfast operator said they hope that the military would help repair the damaged infrastructure and facilities.
Land and sea alerts are scheduled to be lifted by noon today and tomorrow respectively, after the typhoon moves westward, the CWA said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary