By KHT Staff
KAOHSIUNG — City officials have announced cash relief for farmers after extreme rain damaged crops across the city, with applications opening Monday, Aug. 25, and continuing through Sept. 7.
In a separate disaster-response briefing, Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the Nanzih District (楠梓區) monitoring station recorded 567 mm of rain in 24 hours and 913 mm over three days. CNA reported that Chen described both totals as records for the station.
The city’s agricultural-relief statement gives the same three-day total, 913 mm, but does not identify the station. The figure should not be read as meaning all of Kaohsiung received more rain than it did during Typhoon Morakot in 2009. Morakot brought far larger multi-day totals to mountain stations in Kaohsiung, including nearly 2,790 mm at Yuyou Mountain (御油山), according to official weather data summarized by the National Taiwan Science Education Center.
The more precise comparison is that Nanzih’s recent rainfall exceeded the station’s Morakot-era benchmark, while this rain event caused particularly severe flooding in Kaohsiung’s northern and coastal lowlands.
According to the Kaohsiung City Government’s Agricultural Bureau, strong southwest airflow brought heavy short-duration rain across the city. Six districts, including Ziguan (梓官) and Mituo (彌陀), recorded more than 500 mm in 24 hours. The bureau said the prolonged rain had left crops waterlogged and caused root rot in some growing areas.
The city said Chen sought broad cash assistance at a central-government disaster meeting on Sunday. Farmers whose crop losses reach 20 percent or more may apply at the district office where their land is located.
