Nearly 6,000 households in Tainan still without power after Podul

Tainan/Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) Around 27,000 households in northern Tainan were left without power after Typhoon Podul swept across the southern Taiwanese city on Wednesday, with nearly 6,000 still cut off from the grid as of 8 a.m. Thursday.

Podul exited to sea from Tainan's Cigu District Wednesday afternoon, with its eye passing over Beimen District, causing multiple power outages, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said at a post-disaster meeting at Taiwan Power Co.'s (Taipower) Hsinying District Office.

According to the Taipower Hsinying office, 27,160 households in northern Tainan were affected by the outage. Nearly 6,000 households in Baihe, Beimen, Liuying, Liujia, Madou, Syuejia, Yanshuei, Guantian, Danei and Shanshang districts were still waiting for power to be restored.

Additionally, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) reported that as of 8 a.m. Thursday, five road sections remained blocked. Among them, the temporary access road along Provincial Highway 20 from Qinhe to Fuxing in Taoyuan District, Kaohsiung, is expected to be cleared by 5 p.m.

The DGH said in a statement that as of 10 p.m. Wednesday, 19 road sections were closed as a precaution. By 8 a.m. Thursday, inspections showed only five road sections still blocked, with the rest reopened to traffic.

The other blocked sections are as follows:

The west entrance of Jinheng Tunnel at Provincial Highway 8 from Tianxiang to Taroko in Xiulin Township in Hualien County.

The section of Provincial Highway 20 from Qinhe to Fuxing Road in Kaohsiung's Taoyuan District.

The section of Provincial Highway 20 from Meishankou to Xiangyang in Haiduan Township in Taitung County.

Part of the Liyuan-Xinwu and Xiangyang-Chulai sections of Provincial Highway 20 in Haiduan, where multiple slope collapses have blocked both lanes.

The Tongfu-Tataka section of Provincial Highway 21 in Nantou County's Xinyi Township, where fallen trees have blocked the road.