Agricultural losses caused by Typhoon Krathon in Taiwan totaled about NT$390 million (US$12.2 million) as of yesterday, data compiled by the Central Emergency Operations Center showed.
In updated statistics released yesterday morning, the cross-agency operations center said the typhoon had caused four deaths and 719 injuries, while one person remains missing and 9,497 reports of damage were filed.
Of the 436,634 households that lost power during the storm, only 1,106 households in Kaohsiung continued to not have power as of yesterday morning, while all 608,073 households of which water supplies were cut have since had it restored, the operations center said.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Government
In terms of agricultural damage caused by the storm, reported losses nationwide rose to NT$387.16 million as of yesterday morning, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
The administrative regions that sustained the greatest losses were Kaohsiung City at NT$238.6 million (62 percent of the total) and Pingtung County at NT$88.9 million (23 percent of the total), the ministry said.
The most affected crops were bananas, guavas, jujubes, papayas and wax apples, the ministry added.
As for road closures, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that a section of Provincial Highway No. 2A in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山) near Bayan Road that had been closed due to a mudslide has reopened to two-way traffic using a single lane.
When additional debris is cleared, traffic on both lanes of the highway is expected to be fully restored by this morning, the ministry said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
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