Typhoon Podul hits Taiwan

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan, August 14 ------ Typhoon Podul slammed into southeastern Taiwan on Wednesday, with powerful winds and heavy rain lashing the island. The typhoon had wind gusts of 191 kilometers (119 miles) per hour as it made landfall in Taitung County at around 1 p.m., the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.

Podul was expected to sweep across the island and into the Taiwan Strait later in the day, battering central and southern areas still recovering from storms last month. More than 5,500 people living in the typhoon’s path have been evacuated from their homes, while fishermen have secured their boats.

“We are worried about this typhoon,” Kaohsiung fisherman Huang Wei told Agence France-Presse (AFP) as he used more ropes to tie down his boat and checked on other vessels hours ahead of Podul making landfall. “We had already made general typhoon preparations yesterday, but this morning I woke up and saw news reports that the typhoon has intensified to be as strong as the last, (Typhoon) Krathon,” Huang said. “Last time, the two boats behind us weren’t tied properly and hit my boat,” he added.

Podul is expected to dump torrential rain across mountainous areas of Kaohsiung City and neighboring Pingtung County, as well as lightly populated Hualien and Taitung counties, the CWA said. Taitung resort worker Lo Wan-chun told AFP by telephone that locals feared the storm could be as strong as Typhoon Nepartak in 2016, when the county recorded its strongest gusts since 1901. “After 8 a.m., the storm began to intensify,” she said, before Podul hit. “It’s still getting stronger. You can hear the wind is loud right now.”

All domestic flights across the island of 23 million people have been canceled for Wednesday, along with dozens of international flights. High-speed rail services on the West Coast have been reduced, while train services in the Southeast have been canceled. Many ferry services have also been suspended, and businesses and schools across the south are closed.

More than 31,500 soldiers were ready to assist in typhoon preparations, as well as rescue and relief efforts, disaster officials said. The CWA expects Kaohsiung and Pingtung could be hit with a cumulative 400 to 600 millimeters (16 to 24 inches) of rain from Tuesday to Thursday.

Typhoon Danas, which hit Taiwan in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 500 mm of rain across the south over a weekend. That was followed by torrential rain from July 28 to Aug. 4, with some areas recording more than Taiwan’s rainfall of 2.1 meters for 2024.

The week of bad weather left five people dead, three missing, and 78 injured, a disaster official said previously. Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October. Scientists say human-driven climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Source: manilatimes.net