The eye of the storm hardly moved from its position Monday, 250 kilometers southwest from Eluanbi, Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The Central Weather Bureau said the storm was expected to move slowly southward away from Taiwan probably beginning Tuesday afternoon. Parma was downgraded from typhoon status late Sunday as its maximum wind speed dropped to 101 kilometers per hour.

Torrential rain and flooding in the northeastern county of Ilan was a result of Parma’s interaction with a northeast wind and with Typhoon Melor moving across the Pacific east of Taiwan toward Japan, the bureau said.

Forecasters repeatedly revised their rain predictions for Ilan upward, to 1,500 millimeters for mountainous areas and 1,000 millimeters for lower-lying parts. Following criticism of the changes, Weather Bureau Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn said making accurate forecasts for amounts of rainfall was extremely difficult.

Flooding hit wide areas in the county’s townships of Sansing and Dongshan, where the water level reached between 20 and 50 centimeters. Rescue workers mobilized rubber dinghies to evacuate residents from their flooded homes.

Dongshan saw 114 millimeters of rain fall between 11 a.m. and noon Monday, or 940 for the period beginning Saturday morning until Monday noon, the weather bureau said.

The top of the list for the most rain nationwide was occupied by six Ilan County locations, while a total of 28 places in the region were under serious threat from landslides, according to the Council of Agriculture.

Both the main road linking Su’ao in Ilan County with Hualien and the railway line between the two counties were closed off after landslides, reports said.

As the erratic tropical storm hit Ilan County, its government came under fire for its flip-flops in deciding typhoon holidays for Monday afternoon.

On Sunday evening, the county announced Monday would be a normal working day for most of the region’s offices and schools. However, at 8:20 a.m. Monday, after schools had already opened, the county announced a typhoon holiday for the schools beginning at noon.

The belated decision caused scheduling and transportation problems for parents, students and schools. The county promised to send buses to take students home over flooded roads.

At 11:30 a.m. Monday, the county revised its holiday policies again, adding the closure of offices from noon to its measures.

During a visit to the Central Emergency Operations Center Sunday, President Ma Ying-jeou singled out the Ilan representative to remind its magistrate, Kuomintang member Lu Kuo-hua, to pay special attention to the storm’s impact.

Speaking at the Legislative Yuan, Premier Wu Den-yih said he understood it was the first time that local governments also considered the danger of mudslides before reaching a decision. In the future, the central government would provide scientific data to local authorities, Wu said.

The central government could forgive Ilan, but local governments should announce their decisions earlier so as not to inconvenience the public, Wu told reporters.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party said it approved of giving more power to local authorities, but only if the central government first drew up standards to be followed. If each township decided by itself when to close offices and schools, residents would face complete chaos, said DPP spokesman Chao Tien-lin.

A total of 6,688 people were evacuated during the storm up to Monday morning across six counties in eastern and southern Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operations Center said. More than half of the evacuees were registered in the counties of Pingtung and Kaohsiung, areas hard hit during the previous typhoon, Morakot, which left more than 700 dead and devastated villages on August 8-9.

1,400 residents were evacuated from Chialan Township in Taitung County after a temporary bridge erected after Morakot was swept away. Flooding also hit the center of Taitung City, reports said. Several townships in Pingtung and Taitung counties also closed offices or schools for the day Monday.

Ships and aircraft were crossing the area around Penghu to look for 11 crew members of a Panamanian-registered container ship after its captain and two other crew members were rescued.

The “Silver Sea” sank near Penghu late Sunday, on its way from Kaohsiung to Manila, the Central Emergency Operations Center said. A military helicopter saw two flares being fired but failed to locate the vessel because of poor visibility and 7-meter high waves.

Monday morning, two coast guard ships found wreckage, containers and an empty dinghy, but no survivors, reports said. A Chinese ship rescued the captain, a national of Myanmar, who said his crew had boarded a dinghy after two others had been overturned by strong waves. The crew members were 11 Indonesians and two Chinese nationals, reports said.

The coast guard later rescued two of the crew, who were transferred to a hospital in Chiayi, reports said.

Two helicopters, a Hong Kong container ship, two Chinese vessels and ships from the Navy and the Coast Guard were continuing the search for survivors, the government said. The “Silver Sea” was loaded with 53 containers carrying electronic products among others, reports said.

In Taipei, a tree fell across Yangde Boulevard, the main road between the city and the Yangmingshan area, blocking traffic during the morning peak hour.

In contrast to previous typhoons, state-run utility the Taiwan Power Corporation said Monday morning no electricity breakdowns had been reported.

The Central Weather Bureau said residents of mountainous and low-lying areas should still be vigilant, as heavy rain might continue even after Parma began moving away Tuesday. Mudslides, flooding, and high waves still posed a danger to the public, the bureau said.