Yilan got 544mm of rain yesterday, closing the highway.

From http://bit.ly/IX7Cx5:

"Downpours close 2 sections of Suao-Hualien Highway The China Post news staff--Two sections of the Suao-Hualien Highway were closed to traffic yesterday after torrential rains in eastern Taiwan induced sporadic minor landslides.

As a precautionary measure, authorities closed the Suao-Tungao Section of the Suao-Hualien Highway at 4 p.m. and then the Chungteh-Suao Section at 7 p.m. The two sections may be re-opened this morning, circumstances permitting, according to highway maintenance officials.

In Yilan County, Suao Township reported more than 226 mm of rain yesterday and swelling rivers prompted the township administrative office to open a rain shelter for local residents.

Suao was the wettest spot in the country yesterday, with a local observatory reporting an accumulated 372.5 mm of rainfall as of 7:20 p.m.

Humid easterly winds and a well developed convectional cloud system were to blame for the downpour in eastern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said in a weather report yesterday.

Yilan's special terrain also played a role, the CWB said, adding further torrential rains were expected in both Yilan and Hualien Counties well into the night."

Wonder what their policy is for 'closing the gate'. The gates were installed after the the preventable tragedy of the tour buses going over the edge two years ago, but it seems they haven't fixed on a clear policy of when to close them. As i was driving through it, the roads were already becoming rivers in some sections and rocks were littering the road - you could see if it kept going at that level then something was going to seriously give. You know that coz the drive is full of stark reminders of where it has given before. Perhaps a 'gate-closing' trigger worked out on the rainfall level per hour would be a good idea regardless of whether it is a direct hit from a typhoon or not. At the moment they seem to close them when they get word that they have become impassable.

Didn't notice anything in the news article where CWB explained how they managed to miss warning everyone of a potentially deadly downpour in Ilan.