Heavy rain floods Kaohsiung as mayoral candidates Lai Jui-lung and Ko Chih-en inspect flood defenses
Torrential rain has swamped much of Kaohsiung, forcing both mayoral candidates to drop their schedules and tour flood-hit districts — bad news for low-lying neighborhoods still under water.
- Rain in Kaohsiung's Xinxing district topped 350mm in 24 hours, with Sanmin, Lingya, Zuoying, Nanzi, Xiaogang and Fengshan all over 300mm.
- Lai Jui-lung visited a flood-detention pond, urged people to stay home unless necessary, and pointed them to the 1999 hotline for flooding or fallen trees.
- Ko Chih-en went to Qiaotou and Tzukuan, where roads were still cordoned off at dawn and residents were stacking sandbags and fitting flood barriers.
- Both are pushing drainage and pumping as a campaign issue, with Ko promising a review of the city's whole flood-control setup.
Outlook: Rain is expected to keep falling for another two days, so low-lying areas face more flooding before the system clears.