The dust storm blew through the night and left a layer of sand on every object it touched in the county's capital of Taitung City, a local resident complained on his way to work Monday.

"In the past, it only blew in the morning; now it comes at night too. No one can stand it! " the resident lamented.

The storm also limited visibility to less than two meters in Taitung's gray downtown area. Some motorbike riders were seen using their hands to try and deflect sand from their faces as they scooted through the streets.

The storm delayed the morning session of the Taitung County Council for nearly two hours because many councilors could not reach the building. When the session started, Councilor Lee Cheng-yuan proposed a motion asking the county government to declare the dust storm a natural disaster.

Lee asked that local authorities shut down offices and schools whenever a dust storm attacks.

Echoing Lee's proposal, Councilor Chang Kuo-chou contended that it was extremely dangerous for schoolchildren to ride their bikes to school during the storm, and that once in school, they had to don face masks and stay indoors with the windows closed tightly.

The motion won the majority support of the council, but it still must receive the local government's approval before it can take effect.

The Central Weather Bureau's Taitung station said that mounds of dust and dirt have piled up in the downstream stretch of the Beinan River that runs through Taitung City in recent days because of dry weather.

When the monsoon blows, it sweeps up the dirt, meteorologists at the station said.

The dust storm also attacked Yunlin County on Taiwan's western plains Monday, and local residents were urged to remain indoors.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) reported that the dust storm will continue to affect eastern and south-central Taiwan in the next two days and suggested that all those living in those areas curtail their outdoor activities.

Citing weather bureau statistics, the EPA pointed out that the concentration of particulates in the air over parts of Taitung and Yunlin counties reached 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter Monday, a hazardous level.

(By Tyson Lu, Yeh Tzu-kang & Elizabeth Hsu)