Typhoon Krathon as of yesterday had killed two people and injured 667, while one person was still missing, the Central Emergency Operations Center told a news conference, warning people to avoid outdoor activities in mountainous areas even though sea and land warnings have been lifted.
Work and classes were canceled in some areas of New Taipei City for today.
Although the storm has weakened into a tropical depression, people in mountainous areas are advised against going outdoors, as the soil is saturated due to heavy rainfall, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) said.
Photo courtesy of the army
One of the two who died was a man in Hualien County surnamed Lai (賴), 70, who was trimming a tree when he fell from a ladder from a height of about 3m.
He passed away in a hospital on Wednesday, the center said.
The other person who died was a man surnamed Lee (李), 66, who was driving a car when he struck a boulder that had had fallen onto a road in Taitung County.
Photo copied by CNA
He passed away in a hospital on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a migrant worker who reportedly fell into the sea at a beach in Yunlin County was still missing, as the waves were too strong for search-and-rescue operations, the center said.
A report of a person being swept away by floodwaters at Shueiyuan Bridge (水源橋) in Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林) has been proven false, it said, adding that 2,380 of 7,402 typhoon-related incidents have been resolved.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Krathon caused serious damage after making landfall in Kaohsiung on Thursday, with more than 2,000 trees in the city being blown over.
Wind speeds reached 203kph in Kaohsiung on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
Kaohsiung City Government data showed that 1,951 trees had to be cleared and road closures had led to traffic jams.
Photo copied by Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
A man surnamed Chen (陳) yesterday told reporters that it is typically a 20-minute drive from Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山) to Zuoying District (左營), but has taken more than 40 minutes since the storm.
Extremely torrential rain continued yesterday evening along the northern coast and in Keelung, accumulating more than 500mm in 24 hours in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山), the CWA said.
Work and classes are canceled for today in Wanli (萬里), Jinshan, Shihmen (石門) and Sanjhih (三芝) districts in New Taipei City amid widespread flooding.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
At least a dozen vehicles belonging to an incineration plant in Keelung were damaged after a landslide undermined the lot they were parked in on Thursday night, the Keelung Bureau of Environmental Protection said.
No one was trapped or injured in the incident, it said.
Krathon set three new records in Taiwan’s typhoon history, the CWA told a news conference yesterday.
It made landfall four days and four hours after the sea warning was issued, the longest delay ever, it said.
It was also the first typhoon to land in Kaohsiung in October and the first to make the CWA convene remote meetings with local governments for three days in a row, it said, adding that it was the first typhoon to make landfall in Kaohsiung in 47 years.
Media personality Frances Huang (黃光芹) yesterday said that the CWA had given “ridiculous forecasts,” citing the four-day gap between the sea warning and landfall.
The CWA is irresponsible to let local governments decide whether to suspend work and classes, and slow responses due to the lack of a big database show that its technology is falling behind meteorological departments in Western countries, despite its collaboration with Nvidia Corp to promote artificial intelligence (AI), Huang said.
Many of Huang’s remarks are far from the truth, CWA Weather Forecast Center Director Chen Yi-liang (陳怡良) said.
The CWA updated forecasts for rain and wind every three hours, and issued a typhoon warning report every hour while the sea and land warnings were in effect, with the information open to the public and reported to all local governments, he said.
Local governments think comprehensively when deciding whether to suspend work and classes, and meteorological reports are just for their reference, he said, adding that the CWA supported local governments in making informed decisions via continued remote meetings.
AI technology has been employed to make weather forecasts, but its performance would improve with more new data, he said.
“The CWA plans to use AI to its advantage and continue to make improvements,” he added.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Power Co said that electricity had been restored to more than 80 percent of the 294,625 households that had lost power during the storm.
As of yesterday evening, 53,923 homes were still without power, with personnel working to restore lines by later in the evening, it said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS