Taiwan reopens, clearing damage after Typhoon Krathon

Southern Taiwan worked Friday to deal with damage from flooding and strong winds after Typhoon Krathon slammed into a major port city, while most of the rest of the island resumed business and financial markets rallied. they reopened.

Krathon, now downgraded to a tropical depression, made landfall in the southwestern city of Kaohsiung, flooding streets, blowing out windows on buildings and scattering debris amid record-breaking winds.

While the rest of Taiwan resumed business, the governments of Kaohsiung and neighboring Pingtung County declared a fourth consecutive day off as they scrambled to pump out floodwaters, clear fallen trees and clear roads.

“We hope to resume transportation, water supply and electricity as soon as possible so that work and life can return to normal,” Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai told reporters.

The city government said it was tackling more than 2,000 fallen trees on roads, but reported only two injuries.

Workers used cranes to remove downed trees and traffic signs in Kaohsiung, a city and suburb of 2.7 million people, with some roads blocked, forcing traffic and pedestrians to divert.

“The sandbags didn’t work. The wind pushed the water anyway,” said Clark Huang, 49. “Luckily it only lasted a couple of hours and then we started cleaning up.”

Engineer Tsai Ming-an was cleaning up his house after floods about 20 cm (7.8 in) high swept through the entire ground floor.

“I’ve never seen winds like this,” the 51-year-old said. “It was so bad.”

Typhoons almost always hit Taiwan’s mountainous and sparsely populated east coast, which faces the Pacific Ocean, but Krathon unusually hit its flat west coast.

Nearly 100,000 households, almost all in Kaohsiung and Pingtung, were still without electricity on Friday, while 129,000 households in Kaohsiung were without water supply.

The fire department said the death toll remained at two, with both men killed on the east coast before the typhoon made landfall, one person missing and 667 injured.

The typhoon had no impact on TSMC’s operations, the world’s largest chipmaker said in a statement.

Taiwan reopened its north-south high-speed rail line, as well as most regular rail routes except for two secondary lines, but air travel disruptions continued, with 15 international and 88 domestic flights cancelled.

Workers at the Kaohsiung port were clearing some discarded cargo containers from their stacks to ensure operations were not affected, the transport ministry said.

Kaohsiung Airport suffered damage to two air bridges, while the airport on outlying Orchid Island was washed away by landing gear, although both remained open, the ministry added.

The government also said it was investigating the cause of a fire at Pingtung Hospital that broke out as the typhoon approached, killing nine people.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee, Fabian Hamacher and Ann Wang; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Clarence Fernandez and Michael Perry)

Photo: Waves crash on the coast of Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, as Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

TOPICS
Catastrophe Natural disasters