The second storm to threaten Taiwan in 10 days is moving towards the south of the island, weather forecasters said Tuesday, amid calls for a boost in existing flood control measures.
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) warned that the incoming storm, named Lekima, would bring strong winds and rain of up to 1,000 milimeters (40 inches) in some areas.
While advising people in southern Taiwan to be vigilant of the approaching storm, the CWB also warned of "regional downpours and landslides in northern and northeastern parts of the island."
Rainfall has already reached over 600 millimeters (24 inches) in some areas, and there have been reports of landslides on the southern cross-island highway, causing traffic problems.
The center of the storm was about 80 kilometers (48 miles) east-southeast of Eranpi, the most southern-most tip of the island at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT), the CWB said.
With a radius of 180 kilometers (108 miles) and packing winds of 130 kilometers (78 miles) an hour, Lekima was moving north-northwest at a relatively slow five kilometers an hour.
The fresh warning, which comes 10 days after the killer Typhoon Nari left 94 people dead in the island's worst floods in a century, prompted government officials to revise the island's existing anti-flood infrastructure.
"The recent massive amount of rainfall will be included while we recalculate the flood standards shortly," Lee Tieh-min, director of the economic ministry's Northern Water Resources Bureau, told AFP.
Taiwan's current anti-flood standards were worked out based on rainfall data collected over the past 40 years.
Experts said the government needed to pump in more money to battle floods.
"In Hsichih alone, the government may have to spend 50 billion Taiwan dollars (1.45 billion US) more to enhance its anti-flood infrastructure," said Huang Jing-san, director of the economic ministry's Water Conservancy Agency.
The government has already spent at least 10 billion dollars on various anti-flood projects in the newly developed city, which was badly flooded after Typhoon Nari dumped up to 1,257 millimeters (49.5 inches) of rain in 51 hours from midnight September 16.
Thousands of homes and some 4,100 office buildings around the island, 80 percent of them in Taipei, were inundated by floodwaters from swollen rivers during the killer storm -- TAIPEI (AFP)
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