Related News
4 killed as Megi hits Taiwan
Print Edition
FOUR people died and scores of others were injured when the third typhoon in two weeks hit Taiwan yesterday.
It brought violent winds and heavy rain as schools and offices closed.
Typhoon Megi forced thousands to evacuate their homes and played havoc with rail and road networks as it made landfall in the eastern county of Hualien in the early afternoon.
One 40-year-old man died in a car accident in high winds while a 65-year-old man was killed when he was hit by falling scaffolding. A 17-year-old boy drowned when his boat overturned, authorities said, and a 48-year-old man fell to his death as he was repairing the roof of a house. All the deaths were in the south.
At least 167 people were injured, including seven Japanese tourists and a local guide when their bus was bowled over by winds on a highway in central Taiwan, according to the island’s fire agency.
Billboards and scaffolding were torn down while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off. Television footage showed waves surging past breakwaters in the northeastern county of Yilan and outlying Orchid Island.
Over 11,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and nearly 3,000 are in shelters, according to Taiwan’s emergency operation center. More than 2 million households have lost power and more than 35,000 households are without water.
Some 400 international and domestic flights were canceled as of yesterday afternoon, and over 400 delayed. Most trains and ferries were halted.
In the capital Taipei, which was also lashed by downpours and winds, bus services and overground metro trains were suspended as some roads were flooded.
More than 1,000 millimeters of rain had fallen in mountainous areas of Yilan by the afternoon, according to the weather bureau.
It said accumulated rainfall in some mountainous areas could reach 1,300 millimeters before the storm moves on, increasing the risk of landslides.
“Typhoon Megi has weakened slightly in the past three hours but it will continue to bring winds and rains to Taiwan till tomorrow,” said bureau forecaster Hung Jen-sheng.
More than 35,000 soldiers are on standby to help with disaster relief.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
