Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Parts of Taiwan reported landslides and flooding overnight following significant rain storms, which are set to continue through Thursday, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).
Local authorities in Miaoli announced that schools in Tai’an Township would be closed from Thursday noon due to landslides, which also brought closures to roads and highways in the county.
According to firefighters, a Tai’an Township Office worker suffered minor bruising after his car was hit by falling rocks as he drove to work around 6 a.m. on a highway section.
The driver was able to get out of the wrecked vehicle by himself, the local fire department said.
Miaoli was also the site of another weather-induced traffic accident, involving a 46-year-old scooter rider who suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and leg after crashing into a fallen tree branch.
Meanwhile, flooding in Yunlin County’s Mailiao and Dongshi townships left over 3,000 without power as of 10 a.m. Thursday.
The state-owned utility Taiwan Power Co. said it was investigating the cause of the outage.
Flooding was also reported in Hsinchu, Taichung and Changhua, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
The occupants of a residential complex in Hsinchu County’s Zhubei City were evacuated to safety following a landslide that occured next to the complex.
With the downpours set to continue, the CWB has issued extremely heavy/torrential rain advisories for mountainous areas of Miaoli, and heavy/extremely heavy rain advisories for Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and mountainous areas of Hsinchu.
The bureau has also issued heavy rain advisories for mountainous areas in New Taipei, Taoyuan, Nantou, Chiayi and Pingtung as well as Tainan and Kaohsiung.
The CWB defines “torrential rain” as 350 mm or more of accumulated precipitation within 24 hours and “extremely heavy rain” as 200 mm or more of accumulated precipitation within 24 hours or 40 mm or more within an hour.
“Heavy rain” is defined as 80 mm or more of accumulated precipitation within 24 hours or 40 mm or more within one hour.
Source: Focus Taiwan
