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CHISHAN, Taiwan: US military helicopters joined Taiwan's massive typhoon rescue operation Tuesday, lifting excavation equipment into areas that have been cut off for 10 days by floods and mudslides.
President Ma Ying-jeou, who has apologised for the government's slow response to the emergency, was scheduled to face domestic and international media in separate news conferences to provide an update on relief efforts.
Ma has already warned the death toll from Typhoon Morakot could climb to more than 500, with hundreds feared buried, while 127 people are so far confirmed to have perished in the disaster.
The crisis may have claimed its first political victim as TVBS cable news channel reported deputy foreign minister Andrew Hsia resigned over the ministry's decision to reject foreign aid immediately after the typhoon hit.
A foreign ministry spokesman told a news conference he could not confirm the report.
The government was expected to cancel National Day celebrations on October 10, deeming the planned festivities no longer appropriate, the China Times reported. Officials in Ma's office were not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, rescue operations continued at a slow pace as many typhoon victims, mostly aboriginal people, refused to leave cut-off villages, fearing they would not be allowed to return, rescue officials and tribal elders said.
A total of 1,638 people still needed to be airlifted as of Sunday night, according to the government, but only a small number were brought to safety during Monday's operations, military spokesman Colonel Tai Chan-Teh said.
"Most of the people still stranded on the mountain refuse to leave," Tai told AFP.
Transport Minister Mao Chih-kuo said the military may have to start removing people by force, because it would be too expensive to airlift food and supplies to the villages in the six months it is expected to take to rebuild roads.
The US heavy-lift military helicopters were to carry 12 crane shovels into the disaster area to help speed up repairs to blocked roads, said Christopher Kavanagh, spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy.
China sent 100 prefabricated houses late Monday to help reconstruction efforts, the first in a batch of 1,000 homes worth US$2.9 million being sent to Taiwan's Kaohsiung port, China's official Xinhua news agency said.
At a makeshift morgue in the southern Chishan township, a senior police officer said work was going slowly. He said only 50 bodies had been processed because corpses were badly damaged and would require DNA identification.
"We have been working here round-the-clock for days. But while we hope to help families recover the bodies of their loved ones on the mountain, it is not easy to find them. The mud they were buried in is often a few storeys high," the officer, who gave only his surname, Chang, told AFP.
Foreign aid continued to pour in as Japan pledged 100 million yen (US$1 million) and sent envoys from its development agency to assess how it can do more to help, Japan's foreign ministry said.
Chinese mainland broadcasters said a star-studded fundraiser would air Thursday featuring actors Jackie Chan and Jet Li, actresses Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Xun, and sports stars Yao Ming and Guo Jingjing as well directors Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang, Xinhua reported.
- AFP/yb
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