If you know someone who lives down south in PINGDONG or KAOHSIUNG (county and city) who needs to be evacuated TEXT that person using your cell phone- (service is currently still operational.) and tell them if they need to be evacuated and taken to higher ground to hang a WHITE sheet somewhere on their house that is above the water and visible. I doubt they will be able to see this message as power is out most likely if their home is flooded… but you can phone/text them this if they don’t speak Chinese but want out-
Avoid phoning, it wastes bandwidth and your friends cell phone battery power.
The military and police are currently sweeping the worst hit areas and evacuating people. Some of the small towns are cut off from the roads due to flooding.
Apparently the worst hit areas are located in the small towns of Linbian, Jiadong, and Fengguan, located in Pingdong County.
They are quite close to Kaohsiung.
Currently the Love River is flooding, TV shows 1 guys bottom floor about 3/4 to the top. (its high enough to get his car under.)
If you live in Kaohsiung stay aware and try to use your brain before hanging a white sheet. Obviously if there is no flooding in your home, you don’t need to hang anything. If you have power, you probably are ok, poke your head downstairs periodically and consider moving your valued possessions on first floor upwards.
If you speak Chinese you can try your luck on the emergency phone line (it is currently flooded with calls from people who need evacuation.)
the number is: (02) 2382-2722 (the TV news number)
try 1999 if 119 is not working.
All these numbers are VERY busy as I type this.
My source is the TV news, I am not personally involved in this, but I figure its worth a shot to try and help.
BTW this was posted at 8PM- the current projection for rainfall is 25 000 mm in some areas, over the next 2 days. It already has reached 17500 mm (about 1.75 meters) in some areas of Pingdong.
To put that in context- the average rainfall over 1 year for most of TW is about 10 000 mm a year.