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CWA issues warnings for Typhoon Krathon
The Central Weather Administration has issued both land and sea warnings for Typhoon Krathon.
The land warning currently covers Pingtung, the Hengchun Peninsula and Taitung. As of Monday morning, Krathon was located some 250-kilometres south southeast of Eluanbi at the island's southernmost tip and is moving in a west north-westerly direction at 9 kilometres per hour.
The storm has a radius of 200-kilometers and is packing sustained wind speeds of 155-kilometers-an-hour, with gusts of up to 191-kilometers-an-hour. Krathon's outer rim is expected to begin affecting Taiwan on Monday afternoon. The storm is forecast to continue gaining in strength and the weather administration says it is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow. Krathon is the 18th storm of this year's Pacific typhoon season.
The Central Weather Administration has issued extremely heavy rain alerts for the Hengchun Peninsula, Taitung and Hualien while heavy rain warnings are in effect for Keelung, the north coast area, mountainous areas of both New Taipei and Taipei, Yilan as well as for mountainous areas of both Kaohsiung and Pingtung. All of those advisories will remain in effect through this evening.
City and county governments are taking steps to prepare for potential flooding as Typhoon Krathon is expected to directly affect Taiwan.
The Keelung City Government has closed Da-Wu-Luan Beach and Chao-Jing Park, and cancelled all visits to the Keelung Islet. Access to the Guishan Island off Yilan County has been suspended until at least Wednesday.
Forest offices have announced the closure of ticketed national forest recreation areas in several counties until Wednesday. They include He-Huan-Shan and Ao-Wan-Da in Nantou, the Kenting National Park and Shuang-Liou in Pingtung, Tai-Ping-Shan in Yilan, Zhi-Nan and Fuyuan in Hualien, and Zhi-Ben and Siang-Yang in Taitung.
The Marine and Port Bureau says ferry services between Keelung and the Matsu, Tainan and Dongji in Penghu, as well as to and from Fugang Port in Taitung to Green and Orchid islands have been suspended.
The ferry cancellations also cover services between Hou-Bi-Hu port in Pingtung and Orchid Island, and between Matsu and the Chinese city of Fuzhou.
The Kaohsiung City Water Resources Bureau says all 25 detention basins that can hold a combined 4.98-million cubic meters of stormwater have also been emptied as it seeks to head-off a repeat of the flooding in late July.
