Event
Pacific typhoon in 2001
Typhoon Nari, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Kiko, was an unusually long-lived Category 3 typhoon that took an erratic, two-week track near Taiwan. It also considered as the second wettest typhoon to hit the country. It was the 16th named typhoon in the 2001 Pacific typhoon season.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Typhoon Nari”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Typhoon Nari, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Kiko, was an unusually long-lived Category 3 typhoon that took an erratic, two-week track near Taiwan. It also considered as the second wettest typhoon to hit the country. It was the 16th named typhoon in the 2001 Pacific typhoon season.
On 31 August 2001, a weak low-pressure area formed south of Guam. By 5 September, it merged with a monsoonal trough and strengthened into the 26th tropical depression of the season northeast of Taiwan. A large, dry airflow from the northwest caused the storm to drift northeast where it became a tropical storm on 6 September. Nari was stationary near Okinawa due to the subtropical ridge dipping near Japan and became a typhoon on the 7th. On 9 September, at around 7:00(UTC), Nari developed an eye, which collapsed 14 hours later due to dry air inflowing around the storm, associated with an upper-level trough, causing leading to the system's decrease in size while becoming stationary. On 10 September, Nari was pulled slightly to the east by Typhoon Danas. At the same time, it made a small burst of convection as wind shear lowered and rapidly intensified into a Category 3 typhoon, reaching a peak of 115 mph (185 km/h) winds before weakening to a tropical storm on the 14th. It restrengthened to a typhoon, and as it continued southwestward, Nari reached 100 mph (160 km/h) winds before hitting northeastern Taiwan on the 16th. The storm drifted across the island, emerging into the South China Sea on the 18th as a tropical depression. It continued westward and made landfall east of Hong Kong as a 65 mph (105 km/h) tropical storm on the 20th.
Striking two months after Taiwan's second deadliest typhoon, Toraji, Nari brought torrential rainfall to much of the island. Numerous landslides triggered by the storm's rain destroyed homes and buried people. At least 94 people died on the island and ten others were missing. Agricultural losses from Nari were estimated at NT$2.9 billion (US$84 million). In mountainous regions, more than 1,225 mm (48.2 in) of rain fell over two days, leading to many rivers overflowing their banks. On 17 September, some areas recorded a record-breaking 800 mm (31 in) during a single day, equivalent to four months of rain in Taiwan. At the height of the storm, an estimated 650,000 people were without power and 350,000 lost their water and telephone service. Most of the fatalities took place around the city of Taipei and nearby counties. The metro system in the city was severely damaged by floods and was not expected to be working for at least six months.
In response to the severe damage, the Taiwanese government deployed roughly 8,000 soldiers to assist in search-and-rescue operations across the island. Nearly 10,000 people in northern and central Taiwan were relocated to shelters across the region.
Already suffering from an economic downturn from the September 11 attacks in the United States, the economy of Taiwan was severely affected by Nari. Businesses were shut down across the island and the stock exchange was closed for several days. Moreover, after it reopened, there was significantly less stock activity as hundreds of thousands of residents were either unable to get to work or hampered by travel issues. The combination of the two events was estimated to have reduced the gross domestic product of Taiwan by 0.2%, roughly NT$19.4 billion (US$560 million).
Text from the Wikipedia article “Typhoon Nari (2001)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.