Heavy rain over the past few days has caused damage in several parts of the nation, with southern Taiwan bearing the brunt, local government officials said yesterday.
The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday ordered the evacuation of more than 2,200 residents after days of heavy rain increased the risk of landslides in several mountainous areas — including 877 in Liouguei (六龜), 737 in Taoyuan (桃源) and 320 in Namasiya (那瑪夏) districts, a city government spokesman said.
Taoyuan District also announced school and office closures yesterday afternoon because access to several areas had been cut off because of flooding on roads and bridges.
Photo: CNA
The Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau said it would provide subsidies to the district’s plum growers, who have incurred heavy agricultural losses because transportation of their crops has been affected during the peak harvest season, the spokesman said.
The Water Resources Bureau has issued a red alert for 53 rivers, while 28 other rivers are on yellow alert.
Heavy and continuous rain over the past few days have caused flooding in some areas of the nation, which has affected agricultural production and supplies.
Photo: CNA
Rain began to fall almost continuously in Taitung from the beginning of the Dragon Boat Festival on Thursday and lasted for three days, causing the collapse of mature rice plants in some areas, a farmer said, expressing concern that if rain continues in the next two days, it could affect the rice harvest.
Over the past 24 hours, accumulated rainfall in Taichung’s Heping (和平), Kaohsiung’s Taoyuan, Hualien County’s Sioulin (秀林) and Tainan’s Baihe (白河) districts all exceeded 20cm, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The bureau yesterday issued a warning for heavy rain in the morning in western and southeastern Taiwan and said a moist air stream from the southwest, which brought rain to several parts of the nation over the weekend, is forecast to continue before precipitation begins easing gradually from tomorrow.
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