Power restored for 94% of homes hit by typhoon-caused record damage

Taipei, July 10 (CNA) Power has been restored to nearly 907,600 homes hit by a blackout due to the record damage to utility poles during Typhoon Danas over the past weekend, as of 7 p.m. Thursday, the state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) said.

Danas, which made landfall in Chiayi County Sunday night, has toppled a total of 2,454 power poles across Taiwan, leading to power outages at 964,301 households, according to Taipower's website.

The record number of damaged power poles, each weighing over 1 metric ton, created the biggest challenge in the company's efforts to restore power supply to affected clients since Monday, especially those in remote areas, Taipower said in a statement Thursday.

While power has been restored in nearly 94% of homes hit by a blackout, there were still 56,705 households without power as of 7 p.m. Thursday, and Taipower said those were mostly at the end of power lines and in mountainous areas.

According to Taipower, restoring power supply to the last few homes can be more difficult than the work required in a blackout that hits 10,000 clients in ordinary days.

For example, Taipower said it had to rebuild 20 power poles along 3 kilometers to reestablish power supply to just five homes.

The company said over 90 percent of its staff from across Taiwan are in Chiayi and Tainan to repair the main power line, with work expected to be completed on Friday.

Taipower's top priority is to restore power supply to residential clients with its ongoing works fixing the main power line, the company said.

However, the days of rain that followed Danas' departure continued to hamper its ongoing works, according to Taipower.

Several districts and townships in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County in southern Taiwan closed schools and government offices over heavy downpours on Thursday, while the Central Weather Administration (CWA) still has an extremely heavy rain advisory in place for the southern cities and counties, along with Taitung.

The CWA weather advisories issued at 5:15 p.m. Thursday warned of more than 100 millimeters of rainfall in three hours or 24-hour rainfall exceeding 200 mm in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung until Friday morning.

The weather agency also warned of heavy rainfall exceeding 40 mm in one hour or 24-hour rainfall of over 80 mm in Chiayi during the same period.