Work to restore power, access to typhoon-hit villages continues

Taipei, Nov. 3 (CNA) Efforts to repair the damage caused by Typhoon Kong-rey are ongoing in Taiwan, with more than 8,000 households still without power and access to several rural communities remaining blocked three days after the storm, the Central Emergency Operation Center said Sunday.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, 8,164 households across Taiwan were still without power, with work to restore electricity expected to conclude on Monday, the center said in a statement.

A total of 965,342 households experienced power outages due to Kong-rey, which made landfall and swept through Taiwan on Thursday, according to the center. Water supply has been restored to all 63,016 households affected by the storm.

Several locations around Taiwan remain cut off due to damage to access roads, which continues to hinder progress in restoring power, the center said.

One of the road blocks is in Taitung County at the 29.5-kilometer mark on Provincial Highway No. 30, although the road is expected to open to traffic after debris from a landslide is cleared Sunday evening.

In Kaohsiung, one of the two affected locations -- on Provincial Highway No. 29 in the mountainous Namasia District -- is set to reopen on Monday, while work continues to reach three villages in Taoyuan District cut off by a typhoon for the third time this year. Around 370 people were stranded in the mountainous area.

Meanwhile, in Hualien County, it is still uncertain when traffic between the 110-km and 184-km marks on Provincial Highway No. 8 will be able to resume because no drones can be sent out to check the damage due to poor visibility, the center said.

Workers are still trying to restore access to several villages in Hualien, it added.

Two locations on Provincial Highway No. 8 in Nantou County are expected to reopen to traffic on Monday, but one in the Lishan area in neighboring Taichung will take an additional day, the center said.

As of 11 a.m. Sunday, agricultural losses caused by the typhoon totaled NT$779.65 million (US$24.39 million), according to statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Yunlin and Hualien counties were the hardest hit, with each reporting losses of more than NT$230 million, the statistics showed.