School, work suspended in 4 southern regions Tuesday due to heavy rain

Taipei, July 28 (CNA) Schools and government offices will remain closed in Chiayi County on Tuesday, and the closures will also extend to Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung County, as torrential rain continues to cause heavy flooding in southern Taiwan.

The heavy rains are being caused by southwesterly winds and the outer bands of Tropical Storm Co-May, the eighth storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season, which was located north of Taiwan and moving towards China on Monday, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA).

As of 2 p.m. Monday, the storm was centered 700 kilometers east-northeast of Taipei, packing sustained winds of 72 km per hour and gusts of up to 101 kph, CWA data showed.

As the storm continued to move in a west-northwesterly direction at 31 kph, the CWA said, heavy rain could be expected across Taiwan, with torrential downpours in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung.

The CWA's rain warnings, issued at 7:15 p.m., mean that Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung can expect accumulated rainfall exceeding 350 millimeters in 24 hours or 200 mm in three hours.

As of that time, Chiayi and Yunlin counties had already recorded torrential rainfall levels.

With the current weather conditions forecast to last until Wednesday, the local governments in Chiayi and Pingtung counties, as well as in Tainan and Kaohsiung cities, have decided to close schools and government offices on Tuesday.

However, schools and government offices in Chiayi City will remain open, according to a notice issued before 8 p.m. Monday.

On Monday evening, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that 1,572 residents in mountainous areas of the city had been evacuated due to landslide risks.

Taiwan Power Co. said it had approximately 4,000 workers on standby around Taiwan, including about 800 in Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan, with hundreds of water pumps and generators.

Chiayi County and Tainan are still reeling from heavy rains caused by Typhoon Danas, which made landfall in Chiayi on July 6, taking down a record number of utility poles -- more than 2,000 -- and causing damage to the power supply infrastructure.

On Monday, the Tainan City government said it planned to evacuate residents in homes that were still covered with canvas following rooftop damage during the typhoon.