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By Ben Blanchard / Reuters, TAIPEI
Torrential rains from a passing tropical storm shut down a swathe of southern Taiwan today, forcing more than 5 million people to stay home from work or school.
Typhoon Mekkhala, now a tropical storm and nearing southern Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, did not make direct landfall in Taiwan, but its outer bands brought heavy rain to parts of the nation, especially Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung in the south.
The governments of all three regions, where more than 5 million people live, ordered offices and schools closed today.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Severe flooding in Tainan shut down a section of the main north-south railway line.
No casualties have been reported, but authorities in Hualien County are evacuating nearly 200 residents from Fonglin (鳳林) and Wanrong (萬榮) townships, which are downstream of a rapidly filling barrier lake in the mountains.
Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage.
Last year, 19 people died in Hualien’s Guangfu Township (光復) when another barrier lake burst during Super Typhoon Ragasa, unleashing a wall of water and mud into homes.
Rain is forecast to continue across Taiwan for at least the next week, though it would gradually ease.
Precipitation is not all bad news for Taiwan, which relies on the traditional summer and autumn typhoon season to fill up its reservoirs after what are typically dry winters.
