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CHISHAN, Taiwan: Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday apologised for his government's slow emergency response to Typhoon Morakot amid rising public anger.
"We could have done better and we could have been faster. But we weren't better and we weren't faster. Of course we are very sorry," Ma told reporters in central Nantou county, an area hit by the typhoon.
Ma added that bad weather hindered rescue missions as last weekend's typhoon lead to three days of torrential rain, which grounded helicopters.
The president has warned the death toll, which rose to 123 on Saturday, could climb further to 500, with hundreds feared buried beneath the rubble in the village of Hsiaolin alone.
Grieving relatives held roadside memorial services outside destroyed villages, a week after Typhoon Morakot unleashed devastating floods and mudslides across Taiwan.
As the huge rescue operation continued, weeping relatives set up makeshift shrines as close as possible to devastated villages to honour the belief that the souls of the dead return home after seven days.
"My little girl, do you hear mummy calling you? Mummy's missing you!" a woman wailed outside the flattened Hsiaolin village in footage broadcast on private cable news channel ETTV.
Mourners laid out slippers, poured rice wine and burned paper money to comfort the dead.
"Come back! Come back!" an old man cried, tears streaming down his cheeks.
More than 50,000 troops are struggling to overcome raging rivers and fallen bridges to reach victims, many of whom have been without food and water since the typhoon struck central and southern Taiwan last weekend.
But amid continuing efforts there were also signs hopes were fading.
The National Police Agency asked relatives who had lost contact with loved ones since the typhoon to provide DNA samples at local police stations to help identify the dead.
Anger has been mounting over the Ma government's apparent bungling of its response to the disaster, with critics saying it was slow to recognise the magnitude of the emergency.
Ma said Friday the island's losses due to Typhoon Morakot were expected to reach NT$110 billion (US$3.4 billion).
The cabinet has promised a special budget to help cover the typhoon damage.
Hong Kong actor Andy Lau and Chinese action star Jet Li joined other celebrities in answering phones as two Friday night televised fundraisers brought in more than NT$1.1 billion to aid typhoon victims.
The international community has donated more than US$2 million while the Vatican contributed US$50,000 and Pope Benedict XVI offered his prayers for the victims, the foreign ministry said.
Dozens of helicopters continued to criss-cross mountains and ravines, delivering food and water, and airlifting survivors.
The island's southeastern Taitung County government estimated that nearly 3,700 people in its townships were still cut off.
Meanwhile, the emergency operation centre in central Chiayi county said that it believed nearly 9,000 people remained stranded there.
And in Kaohsiung, the hardest-hit county where most of the rescue missions are concentrated, troops were evacuating 2,000 more people, officials said.
Morakot was the worst-ever typhoon to strike Taiwan, the president said on Friday, saying the scale of the damage was more severe than a 1959 typhoon that killed 667 people and left around 1,000 missing.
Morakot dumped more than three metres (120 inches) of rain, triggering floods and mudslides which tore through houses and buildings, ripped up roads and smashed bridges.
The deadliest natural disaster in the island's history was a 7.6-magnitude quake that claimed around 2,400 lives in September 1999.
- AFP/yb
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