Heavy rain triggers evacuations, flooding across southern Taiwan

More than 2,600 people have been evacuated from Kaohsiung after heavy rains battered southern Taiwan, causing widespread flooding, issuing landslide warnings and damaging roads across the region, according to Mirror News.

Kaohsiung authorities evacuated 2,648 people as they issued 119 red alerts warning of potential debris flow occurrences in mountainous regions by Monday morning, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

The evacuations were part of the precautionary measures in place on the island that have been taken when considering landslides and debris flows as possible occurrences in certain areas.

This situation has been caused by the existence of a low-pressure system together with strong southerly winds, capable of triggering heavy and extremely heavy downpours across all south and southeast areas up until Tuesday morning. Floods, landslides, rockfalls and rising waters in rivers may result from this.

In Kaohsiung, rainfall was measured at 567 millimetres in 24 hours at one monitoring station in Nanzih. Over three days, this increased to 913mm, breaking historical records, local media reported. This triggered reports of flooding and road damage in several districts.

Neighbouring county Pingtung had also evacuated hundreds of residents due to flooding, officials said. In addition, rail services and roads were disrupted in parts of southern Taiwan as they tried to clear up floodwater along with fallen trees and landslide debris.