Record rainfall has overwhelmed Tainan's drainage system, and the city is now spending big to catch up — bad news for residents in flood-hit districts, but the money is finally moving.

• Five days of rain dumped more than a meter of water on Rende District, with 23 districts hitting heavy-rain levels and some areas beating a once-in-a-century benchmark.
• Yongkang's one-day total came in just under what Typhoon Morakot delivered in 2009, the worst on record there.
• The Sanye River is the main problem, and the city has put together a short-, medium-, and long-term fix worth NT$1.775 billion.
• First moves: raise 9.5 kilometers of riverbank walls, build flood storage space under a nearby drainage road, and add pumps east of the Rende interchange, where backed-up river water left roads underwater for half a day.
• Nearby projects are also queued up — higher levees on the Gangweigou River, a new pump station near An Nan Hospital, and drainage work in Anding already under construction.

Outlook: The Anding pump station and box culvert work is due to finish by the end of 2027, but the emergency riverbank raising is the only piece likely to help before the next storm season.