Tropical Storm hits Taiwan 
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Three deaths reported as tropical storm Fung-Wong lashes Taiwan
Casualties possibly related to the storm reported; 40,000 left without power; and airplane sustains damage during downpour
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 21 September, 2014, 1:47pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 21 September, 2014, 9:35pm
A man in Taipei holds his umbrella while walking against strong winds as tropical storm Fung-wong hits Taiwan. Photo: Reuters
Tropical
storm Fung-Wong, which left 10 dead in the Philippines, pounded Taiwan
yesterday with torrential rain and strong winds, forcing the
cancellation of more than 100 flights as well as ferry services.
More than 40,000 households in southern and northeastern Taiwan were without electricity as the storm hit power lines.
A highway traffic accident in torrential rain also killed three people, but authorities said they had yet to determine whether the accident could be attributed to the storm.
Kaohsiung, where a deadly gas blast occurred in late July, was spared after the storm changed its originally predicted course to skirt southern Taiwan as it headed north.
Authorities in the island’s second-largest city deployed water pumps and various precautionary measures to prepare for the gales and downpours that could wreak further havoc to the city still reeling from a gas blast that killed 30 people and damaged much of its drainage system.
“But this does not mean we can relax our vigilance as torrential rains were reported in the mountains east of Kaohsiung,” Mayor Chen Chu said.
A boy crosses a street during a downpour brought by Typhoon Fung-Wong. Photo: EPA
The defence ministry has ordered 48,000 soldiers to be on stand-by while fishing boats were advised to seek shelter at ports.
Fung-Wong had scraped the southern tip of the island around 10am after it veered east away from its forecast route, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The storm brought torrential rains and strong winds which whipped high waves off the south coast, forcing thousands of tourists and surfers to leave the popular Kenting area.
Packing winds of 90 kilometres per hour, Fung-Wong had dumped up to 60 centimetres of rain as it tracked north-northeast, the bureau said.
“As heavy rains could trigger landslides, people should stay away from the mountainous areas,” a weather forecaster from the bureau said as the authorities evacuated more than 1,200 residents from areas prone to mudslides.
Strong gusts gave a Mandarin Airlines’ plane a rough landing as it returned from Zhengzhou, Henan province, to Taichung airport in central Taiwan on Saturday night.
“All 80 passengers and crew aboard were safe, and only a side light of the plane was damaged,” an airline official said.
As of yesterday afternoon, Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei had cancelled 108 flights.
The heaviest rainfall, according to the Central Weather Bureau, was 813mm in Pingtung, east of Kaohsiung, followed by 660mm in Taitung and 297mm in the east coast city of Hualien, where residents stacked sandbags to keep knee-high water from flooding their homes.
Fung-Wong was forecast to leave Taiwan near Keelung on the north coast at about midnight, but heavy rain from the storm would continue, the weather bureau said.
Had the storm been more powerful and moved up the island the west of the Central Mountain Range, the damage would have been far worse, meteorologists said.
The
storm brings torrential rains and strong winds to the south coast of
Taiwan, forcing thousands of tourists to leave the popular Kenting area.
Photo: EPAInstead, it moved over to the east coast where steep mountains deflected the worst of the weather.
Across the strait, authorities in Fujian evacuated more than 35,000 people from the coast before the storm. More than 26,000 fishing boats returned to port.
Fung-Wong was instead expected to make landfall near Wenzhou x , Zhejiang x province this afternoon, bringing heavy rain and gales to the entire province, the provincial weather authority told the Zhejiang Daily.
It was the second storm to hit the island this year, following Typhoon Matmo in July.
A TransAsia Airways domestic flight crashed after an aborted landing during Matmo, killing 48 people on board while 10 passengers survived.
In the Philippines, Fung-Wong claimed 10 lives, with roof-high floods forcing 83,000 people from their homes, after heavy rains paralysed the capital Manila and nearby regions.
With additional reporting from Andrea Chen and Agence France-Presse
COPY http://www.scmp.com/news/
More than 40,000 households in southern and northeastern Taiwan were without electricity as the storm hit power lines.
A highway traffic accident in torrential rain also killed three people, but authorities said they had yet to determine whether the accident could be attributed to the storm.
Kaohsiung, where a deadly gas blast occurred in late July, was spared after the storm changed its originally predicted course to skirt southern Taiwan as it headed north.
Authorities in the island’s second-largest city deployed water pumps and various precautionary measures to prepare for the gales and downpours that could wreak further havoc to the city still reeling from a gas blast that killed 30 people and damaged much of its drainage system.
“But this does not mean we can relax our vigilance as torrential rains were reported in the mountains east of Kaohsiung,” Mayor Chen Chu said.
A boy crosses a street during a downpour brought by Typhoon Fung-Wong. Photo: EPAThe defence ministry has ordered 48,000 soldiers to be on stand-by while fishing boats were advised to seek shelter at ports.
Fung-Wong had scraped the southern tip of the island around 10am after it veered east away from its forecast route, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The storm brought torrential rains and strong winds which whipped high waves off the south coast, forcing thousands of tourists and surfers to leave the popular Kenting area.
Packing winds of 90 kilometres per hour, Fung-Wong had dumped up to 60 centimetres of rain as it tracked north-northeast, the bureau said.
“As heavy rains could trigger landslides, people should stay away from the mountainous areas,” a weather forecaster from the bureau said as the authorities evacuated more than 1,200 residents from areas prone to mudslides.
Strong gusts gave a Mandarin Airlines’ plane a rough landing as it returned from Zhengzhou, Henan province, to Taichung airport in central Taiwan on Saturday night.
“All 80 passengers and crew aboard were safe, and only a side light of the plane was damaged,” an airline official said.
As of yesterday afternoon, Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei had cancelled 108 flights.
The heaviest rainfall, according to the Central Weather Bureau, was 813mm in Pingtung, east of Kaohsiung, followed by 660mm in Taitung and 297mm in the east coast city of Hualien, where residents stacked sandbags to keep knee-high water from flooding their homes.
Fung-Wong was forecast to leave Taiwan near Keelung on the north coast at about midnight, but heavy rain from the storm would continue, the weather bureau said.
Had the storm been more powerful and moved up the island the west of the Central Mountain Range, the damage would have been far worse, meteorologists said.
The
storm brings torrential rains and strong winds to the south coast of
Taiwan, forcing thousands of tourists to leave the popular Kenting area.
Photo: EPAInstead, it moved over to the east coast where steep mountains deflected the worst of the weather.Across the strait, authorities in Fujian evacuated more than 35,000 people from the coast before the storm. More than 26,000 fishing boats returned to port.
Fung-Wong was instead expected to make landfall near Wenzhou x , Zhejiang x province this afternoon, bringing heavy rain and gales to the entire province, the provincial weather authority told the Zhejiang Daily.
It was the second storm to hit the island this year, following Typhoon Matmo in July.
A TransAsia Airways domestic flight crashed after an aborted landing during Matmo, killing 48 people on board while 10 passengers survived.
In the Philippines, Fung-Wong claimed 10 lives, with roof-high floods forcing 83,000 people from their homes, after heavy rains paralysed the capital Manila and nearby regions.
With additional reporting from Andrea Chen and Agence France-Presse
COPY http://www.scmp.com/news/
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