Thursday, April 19, 2007

Tornado over Tainan

Freak tornadoes do occur in Taiwan, and one hit Tainan the other night. I was actually staying overnight down there and I remember thinking how odd the wind was as I lay down to sleep. Little did I know....

A rare tornado hit Tainan county, southern Taiwan, at 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, blowing away the roofs of more than 20 houses and toppling electric-wire poles, trees and even a container weighing over 7,000 kilograms, but leaving no one injured, according to the Tainan county government officials.

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But a Central Weather Bureau (CWB) official said that such a powerful tornado had hit Taiwan some three to four years ago, also in the spring, when volatile cold front systems tend to be accompanied by unusually drastic weather changes, including thunders, torrential rain and strong gusts of wind.

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Meanwhile, Tainan county government officials said that although nobody was hurt by the tornado, many pigs died as they were blown to the air and then fell to the ground.

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