Tropical Storm Fung Wong has caused flooding in eastern Taiwan, where thousands of residents have been told evacuate. In the south, business and schools are closed as residents wait out the storm.
00:00In eastern Taiwan, near that overflowing Matayan River, a local school is now serving as a temporary home for residents vulnerable to the floods.
00:08Some of these people have already had their homes destroyed.
00:12Our reporter Irene Lin is live from that shelter now.
00:15Irene, what's the situation with the evacuees there?
00:20Eric, here at the Wanrong Elementary School, that service at an evacuation center now,
00:25about 20 people have taken refuge here for the past two nights.
00:30Now, they come from two places, one neighborhood that's further north and is vulnerable to typhoons,
00:36and Mingli Village that sits closer to the Matayan River, the waterway that's overflowed.
00:42Now, this afternoon, we met the Mingli Village representative that's been busy going back and forth between the shelter and the village.
00:49Now, he said that the shelter has enough supplies for now, and they're sending more supplies to the village that's only reachable by a winding mountain road heavily.
01:00Now, we also spoke with a Mingli villager, whose home is almost completely empty.
01:29submerged by flash floods.
01:31Now, her family has been evacuated for three days, and today they're relocating to a local hotel that's provided by the Hua Ling County government.
01:39Here's what she said.
01:40Now, just this afternoon, the military has also come in to set up a shower station that's going to allow the evacuees here to wash up while they wait for the rain to stop and for the water levels to go down.
01:58Thanks for that update, Irene. That was Irene Lin reporting from an evacuation center in Hualien. We now turn to our reporter Tiffany Wong, who is in the city of Kaohsiung. Tiffany, how's it looking there?
02:22Hi, Eric. Well, we are here at Liu He Night Market in Kaohsiung, which is usually a very bustling place.
02:31But tonight, there are only a few night market stalls out. Usually, this whole road would be closed to traffic. And that is because of tropical storm Feng Wang.
02:40Now, the storm is expected to make landfall just south of here, the very southern tip of Taiwan tonight, and move northeast. And the rain has been on and off this afternoon.
02:51Now, today in Kaohsiung, work and school was canceled, meaning that there were only a few stores open earlier in the day. The malls were also open, but many of them closed early as they anticipated the rain coming in tonight.
03:06Now, although the rain isn't too strong right now, the local government is warning that it could come back any time and warning people not to let their guard down as there are still some pretty strong winds and these can still pose a danger to people outside.
03:22Thanks, Tiffany. That was Tiffany Wong reporting live from Kaohsiung. Stay tuned to Taiwan Plus for more updates on the storm.
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