Tainan: Nearly 6,000 households in Tainan remain without electricity following Typhoon Podul, which impacted approximately 27,000 households in the northern part of the city. The typhoon passed through Tainan on Wednesday, leading to widespread power outages that continued into Thursday morning.

According to Focus Taiwan, Podul exited to sea from Tainan’s Cigu District on Wednesday afternoon, with its eye moving over Beimen District. This trajectory resulted in multiple power outages, as reported by Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che during a post-disaster meeting at Taiwan Power Co.’s Hsinying District Office. The Taipower Hsinying office confirmed that 27,160 households experienced outages, with nearly 6,000 still cut off from the power grid in areas such as Baihe, Beimen, Liuying, Liujia, Madou, Syuejia, Yanshuei, Guantian, Danei, and Shanshang districts.

In addition to power issues, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) reported that five road sections remained blocked as of 8 a.m. Thursday. 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. Thursday. The DGH also noted that 19 road sections were closed for safety reasons as of 10 p.m. Wednesday. By Thursday morning, inspections revealed that only five sections remained blocked, while the other routes had reopened.

The remaining blocked sections include the west entrance of Jinheng Tunnel at Provincial Highway 8 from Tianxiang to Taroko in Xiulin Township, 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, Taitung County; parts of the Liyuan-Xinwu and Xiangyang-Chulai sections of Provincial Highway 20 in Haiduan, due to slope collapses; and the Tongfu-Tataka section of Provincial Highway 21 in Nantou County’s Xinyi Township, where fallen trees have blocked the road.