Traffic on the main road to Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area in Yilan County has been cut off by a landslide since yesterday morning, forestry authorities said in a statement, adding that the debris is not expected to be cleared until this evening.
The landslide occurred at 7:20am, the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau Luodong Forest District Office said.
Due to the landslide and falling rocks, inbound and outbound traffic on the road has been suspended, the office said.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry Bureau’s Luodong Forest District Office
The office said that 228 people are stranded in the recreation area — 170 tourists and 58 employees.
The recreation area has been closed since the incident, and would remain closed today, it added.
Although one lane of the road had been cleared of debris by 4pm yesterday, the office said that police would lead the stranded visitors out of the area today only after the road conditions have been completely stabilized.
Progress on the road clearing and repair work would be made public on the recreation area’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tps100.forest, and its official Web site, https://tps.forest.gov.tw/TPSWeb/wSite/mp.
In related news, forecasters yesterday said that a lingering low pressure system would bring wet weather to Taiwan this week, including potentially heavy rain in central and southern parts of the country.
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued an extremely heavy rain advisory for Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, warning of 24-hour accumulated rainfall exceeding 200mm or three-hour totals exceeding 100mm.
As of 10:20am yesterday, Kaohsiung’s Zihguan District (梓官) had already received 190mm of rain, while Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港) had received 166mm, CWB data showed.
A heavy rain advisory is in effect for Tainan and Chiayi County, meaning that more than 80mm of rainfall could be expected in a 24-hour period, or one-hour rainfall could exceed 40mm.
Today and tomorrow, showers and thunderstorms are forecast for central and southern Taiwan, while isolated showers are expected in other parts of the country, the bureau said.
While earlier forecasts suggested there might be a break in the rain on Thursday, the latest forecasting models predict continued rain showers and thunderstorms across the western half of Taiwan from Thursday through Saturday, WeatherRisk Explore Inc chief executive officer and meteorologist Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said.
Although the low pressure system would begin to move away from Taiwan on Sunday, the weather is expected to remain unstable until the Dragon Boat Festival next week, he said.
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