| |
CHISHAN, Taiwan: A mudslide engulfed a mountain village in southern Taiwan leaving 100 people feared buried alive, officials said Tuesday, as the confirmed death toll from Typhoon Morakot on the island hit 41.
The typhoon slammed into Taiwan at the weekend, dumping a record three metres (118 inches) of rain, toppling buildings and submerging whole streets before moving on to mainland China, where it caused further havoc.
Two more bodies were discovered Tuesday in a car that fell into a river as the road crumbled due to the floods in central Nantou while a woman's body was found under a bridge in southern Kaohsiung, said the National Fire Agency.
Taiwan's worst flooding in half a century has left another 62 people missing, not counting those unaccounted for by the mudslide in the remote village of Hsiaolin, the agency said.
"About 100 people may have been buried alive (in Hsiaolin)," the agency, which coordinates search and rescue operations, said after the first relief workers arrived in the village by helicopter.
Authorities downplayed reports that up to 600 people were still trapped in Hsiaolin, saying only that around half the village's 200 houses had been swamped by the mudslide.
All roads and bridges linking the village to the outside world were cut off by landslides and the only access in was by helicopter.
A total of 134 people were airlifted to safety from the worst-hit Kaohsiung and Chiayi counties, the National Fire Agency said.
Rescue missions moved into full swing across the island with authorities rushing out helicopters to remote areas cut off by fallen bridges or raging rivers.
"My house is gone. We have been trapped for four days and we are scared," a man from Hsiaolin, in the southern county of Kaohsiung, told reporters after being airlifted to safety.
He was one of about 70 people evacuated from the village by helicopter. Another 150 residents had found safe refuge in the village, with some reluctant to leave, the fire agency said.
Su Shen-tsun, one of the rescuers flown into Hsiaolin Monday, said the sight was astonishing.
"I could hardly believe my eyes," Su said. "The whole village disappeared and even roofs of the houses could not be seen."
Armoured vehicles, marine landing craft and rubber dinghies were mobilised in the rescue operations, which involved nearly 6,000 troops across the island, Taiwan's defence ministry said.
In Pingtung county in southern Taiwan, thousands of people remained trapped in three coastal townships without electricity or drinking water.
The Apple Daily said one man in a flooded Pingtung town had single-handedly rescued about 100 people with a bamboo raft over the past two days.
In the central county of Chiayi, more than 1,200 pigs drowned in a farm and their bodies were rotting in the mud, triggering concerns for public health, reports said.
Typhoon Morakot has caused at least five billion Taiwan dollars (156 million US) in agricultural damage while a total of 61,000 houses were left without power and 850,000 homes without water, according to officials.
Charities and companies have launched donation drives for flood victims, raising more than 800 million Taiwan dollars as of Monday, reports said. Official figures were not immediately available.
A typhoon that struck Taiwan in August 1959 killed 667 people and left around 1,000 missing.
- AFP/yt
|
