Taiwan scrambles to rescue 700 in mudslide villages

Writer: AFP

Published: 12/08/2009 at 03:00 PM

Taiwan Wednesday began airlifting to safety more than 700 people found alive in a trio of villages flattened by muddy landslides, as the island's death toll from Typhoon Morakot hit 67.

Taiwan troops evacuate survivors in Shiaolin, Tainan county, southern Taiwan, following floods caused by Typhoon Morakot. Taiwan's military on Wednesday began a helicopter rescue of more than 700 people who were found alive in three villages flattened by landslides, a senior military officer told AFP.

The military launched the helicopter operation in the battered island's south after the region was hit by its worst flooding in half a century, inundating entire villages in water and mud and cutting off all access by road.

"We have found around 700 people alive in three villages last night and 26 more this morning. We are deploying 25 helicopters to evacuate them," Major-General Richard Hu said.

Hu said he was unable to confirm how many people had been buried or killed by the landslide in Hsiaolin and in two other remote villages in Kaohsiung county.

Heavy rains in the mid-afternoon forced rescuers to suspend the airlift after ferrying 173 of the villagers to safety, the military said, but it was not immediately clear if the effort would resume later Wednesday.

Officials have downplayed media reports that up to 600 people had been killed just in Hsiaolin, parts of which vanished under a tidal wave of mud at the weekend.

Rescuers said Tuesday that around 100 people in Hsiaolin were feared to have been buried alive.

"We believed that some were buried but it's not possible to estimate how many at this moment as almost 90 percent of the houses were buried," Hu said.

"I saw the mountain crumbling in seconds almost like an explosion and buried half of our neighbourhood," said Huang Chin-bao, 56, from Hsiaolin village.

Huang said he and 40 neighbours were guided by his two dogs to higher ground to take shelter. "The dogs are our saviours," he said.

Feelings were running high at a school in the county where relatives of the missing had gathered. Police and soldiers had to push back some who tried to storm their way onto the departing helicopters.

"I cannot wait any more. I want to look for my family," a man in his 40s shouted as he argued with soldiers.

He said he had not heard anything from his family since the typhoon dumped a record three metres (120 inches) of rainfall on southern Taiwan over the weekend.

Chu Chia-jung, 21, said she was desperate for news with only one of her many relatives in Hsiaolin accounted for.

"I've been really, really worried about my close relatives there," she said. "I hope the military can speed up their search and rescue."

Authorities said Typhoon Morakot, which also killed eight people in eastern China, had left at least 67 people dead in Taiwan.

The toll included three rescuers who died when their helicopter crashed into a river in heavy fog in the southern county of Pingtung on Tuesday.

Another 61 people were missing in Taiwan and 45 others injured.

Armoured vehicles, marine landing craft and rubber dinghies have been mobilised in the rescue operation, which involved more than 17,000 troops across the island, the defence ministry said.

The typhoon has caused at least 7.2 billion Taiwan dollars (225 million US) in agricultural damage while nearly 30,000 houses were still without power and 750,000 homes without water, according to officials.

Officials said Hong Kong pop star and actor Andy Lau was to lead a string of Taiwanese entertainers fronting a major fundraising event.

Lau, one of Hong Kong's biggest names and also popular in China and Taiwan, will join more than 200 homegrown stars to take donation pledges over the phone from the Taiwanese public on Friday in the four-hour fundraiser.

Taiwanese charities and companies have also launched donation drives for flood victims, raising more than two billion Taiwan dollars as of Tuesday, reports said. Official figures were not available.

Morakot is one of the worst typhoons to strike Taiwan in 50 years. In August 1959, a typhoon killed 667 people and left around 1,000.

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