Heavy rain driven by Tropical Storm Mekkhala has flooded large parts of Taiwan, killing at least two people and overwhelming flood defenses across the island's south, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported via Focus Taiwan.
A storm that didn't have to land
Mekkhala never struck Taiwan directly. It tracked north along the island's eastern side, and its outer rain bands combined with a weather front moving in from southern China to produce days of extreme rainfall beginning around June 25, the Taipei Times reported. Southern Taiwan bore the brunt: Kaohsiung recorded nearly a quarter of its average annual rainfall in a single day, and gauges across Pingtung and Tainan counties logged hundreds of millimeters.
Floods on a sweeping scale
Authorities recorded 487 separate flood incidents between Thursday morning and midday Friday — the most in Kaohsiung (104), followed by Pingtung County (95), Taipei (82) and Tainan (79) — with 74 areas still under water as of Friday noon, according to Focus Taiwan. In Pingtung's Wandan Township, a levee gave way late Thursday, sending torrents through the villages of Hsingchuan and Hsingan and inundating homes. In Tainan, streets turned to rivers and a stretch of the island's main north-south railway was shut after tracks were flooded.
The toll
Two deaths were confirmed. A 73-year-old woman in Kaohsiung was swept into a drainage channel and her body recovered downstream, and a woman in Hsinchu County's Zhubei was found dead after becoming trapped in her flooded vehicle, Taipei Times reported. Officials also reported residents missing in the same region. Nearly 200 people living downstream of a swollen barrier lake in Hualien County were evacuated as a precaution, and schools and government offices were closed across several regions.
The storm moves on
After raking Taiwan, Mekkhala continued north toward Japan, where authorities issued evacuation advisories to around two million people and airlines canceled scores of flights, the Watchers reported, with forecasters watching for an interaction with a second system, Tropical Storm Higos. The storm arrived at the start of Taiwan's peak typhoon season, which runs from June into October. With more rain forecast, officials warned that floodwaters in the hardest-hit southern counties would be slow to recede.
