[Vision2020] Typhoon Morakot Slams Taiwan: 80 Inches (two meters) Rain: Worst Flooding In Half-Century.

[Ted Moffett]

Can you imagine two meters of rain from one storm?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090810/ap_on_re_as/as_asia_storm/print

 Police: 400 unaccounted for in Taiwan mudslide By PETER ENAV, Associated
Press Writer Peter Enav, Associated Press Writer 34 mins ago

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A mudslide touched off by a deadly typhoon buried a remote
mountain village, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for Monday, and
military rescue helicopters unable to land because of the slippery ground
dropped food to desperate survivors.

Typhoon Morakot slammed Taiwan over the weekend with as much as 80 inches
(two meters) of rain, inflicting the worst flooding the island has seen in
at least a half-century.

The storm submerged large swaths of farmland in chocolate-brown muck and
swamped city streets before crossing the 112-mile-wide Taiwan Strait and
hitting China, where it forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people.

A disaster appeared to be unfolding around the isolated southern village of
Shiao Lin, which was hit by a mudslide Sunday at about 6 a.m. local time —
while many people were still asleep — and was cut off by land from the
outside world.

Speaking to The Associated Press, a Taiwanese police official who identified
himself only by his surname, Wang, said 400 people were unaccounted for in
the village. Wang said 100 people had been rescued or otherwise avoided the
brunt of the disaster.

One of the rescued villagers, an unidentified middle-aged man, told police
that his family of 10 had been wiped out.

"They're gone," he said, according to a local photographer who overheard the
exchange. "All gone."

Another rescued villager, Lin Chien-chung, told the United Evening News that
he believes as many as 600 people were buried in the mudslide.

"The mudslide covered a large part of the village including a primary school
and many homes," Lin was quoted as saying. "A part of the mountain above us
just fell on the village."

Lin said he and several neighbors moved to higher ground several hours
before the mudslide hit because torrential rains had flooded their homes.

Taiwan's population register lists Shiao Lin as having 1,300 inhabitants,
though many are believed to live elsewhere.

Under leaden gray skies, military helicopters hovered over the community,
dropping food and looking for survivors. They were unable to land because of
the slippery terrain.

Shiao Lin was cut off after floodwaters destroyed a bridge about 8 miles (12
kilometers) away. A back road wending its way northward toward the mountain
community of Alishan was also believed to be cut off, and with rain still
falling in the area, the prospects for an early resumption of overland
travel were poor.

Elsewhere in Taiwan, an additional 54 people were listed as missing.

Authorities put the confirmed death toll in Taiwan at 14, but that seemed
certain to rise.

The typhoon's path took it almost directly over the capital of Taipei, but
its most destructive effects were in the heavily agricultural south and
along the island's densely foliated mountain spine. Shiao Lin is on Taiwan's
southwestern coast.

In rural Pingtung county, the rains turned rich swaths of farmland so sodden
that it was difficult to distinguish them from the open sea. In the
Pingtungcommunity of Sandimen, troops maneuvered armored personnel
carriers through
flooded streets, plucking whole families from water-logged buildings and
ferrying them to safety.

In Taitung, in the southeastern lowlands, a raging flood toppled a
five-story hotel.

Anxious relatives in Taitung county begged President Ma Ying-jeou to help
their loved ones.

"You must try to save my father," cried one. "Please, I beg you to save my
father."

After pummeling Taiwan, Morakot slammed into China's Fujian province,
directly across the strait, with heavy rain and winds of 74 miles (119
kilometers) per hour, according the China Meteorological Administration. At
least one child died after a house collapsed in Zhejiang province.

Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses had
collapsed, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Four people died in
Zhejiang, and two other deaths were reported in Fujian and Jiangxi province,
Xinhua said.

Before plowing into Taiwan, the storm hit the Philippines, where it killed
22.

In Japan, meanwhile, Typhoon Etau slammed into the western coast Monday.
Twelve people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides, and 10
others were missing, police said.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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