<div>Can you imagine two meters of rain from one storm?</div>
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<div><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090810/ap_on_re_as/as_asia_storm/print">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090810/ap_on_re_as/as_asia_storm/print</a></div>
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<h1>Police: 400 unaccounted for in Taiwan mudslide</h1>
<div class="byline"><cite class="vcard">By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer <span class="fn org">Peter Enav, Associated Press Writer</span> </cite><abbr class="recenttimedate" title="2009-08-10T12:32:08-0700">34 mins ago</abbr></div>
<div class="byline"><abbr class="recenttimedate" title="2009-08-10T12:32:08-0700">
<p>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.</p>
<p>Typhoon Morakot slammed <span id="lw_1249932739_0" class="yshortcuts">Taiwan</span> 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.</p>
<p>The storm submerged large swaths of farmland in chocolate-brown muck and swamped city streets before crossing the 112-mile-wide <span id="lw_1249932739_1" class="yshortcuts">Taiwan Strait</span> and hitting <span id="lw_1249932739_2" class="yshortcuts">China</span>, where it forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>One of the rescued villagers, an unidentified middle-aged man, told police that his family of 10 had been wiped out.</p>
<p>"They're gone," he said, according to a local photographer who overheard the exchange. "All gone."</p>
<p>Another rescued villager, Lin Chien-chung, told the United Evening News that he believes as many as 600 people were buried in the mudslide.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Lin said he and several neighbors moved to higher ground several hours before the mudslide hit because torrential rains had flooded their homes.</p>
<p>Taiwan's population register lists Shiao Lin as having 1,300 inhabitants, though many are believed to live elsewhere.</p>
<p>Under leaden gray skies, <span id="lw_1249932739_3" class="yshortcuts">military helicopters</span> hovered over the community, dropping food and looking for survivors. They were unable to land because of the slippery terrain.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in <span id="lw_1249932739_4" class="yshortcuts">Taiwan</span>, an additional 54 people were listed as missing.</p>
<p>Authorities put the <span id="lw_1249932739_5" class="yshortcuts">confirmed death toll</span> in Taiwan at 14, but that seemed certain to rise.</p>
<p>The typhoon's path took it almost directly over the capital of <span id="lw_1249932739_6" class="yshortcuts">Taipei</span>, 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.</p>
<p>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 <span id="lw_1249932739_7" class="yshortcuts">Pingtung</span> community of Sandimen, troops maneuvered armored personnel carriers through flooded streets, plucking whole families from water-logged buildings and ferrying them to safety.</p>
<p>In Taitung, in the southeastern lowlands, a raging flood toppled a five-story hotel.
<p>Anxious relatives in <span id="lw_1249932739_8" class="yshortcuts">Taitung county</span> begged <span id="lw_1249932739_9" class="yshortcuts">President Ma Ying-jeou</span> to help their loved ones.
<p>"You must try to save my father," cried one. "Please, I beg you to save my father."
<p>After pummeling Taiwan, Morakot slammed into <span id="lw_1249932739_10" class="yshortcuts">China's Fujian province</span>, directly across the strait, with <span id="lw_1249932739_11" class="yshortcuts">heavy rain</span> 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.
<p>Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses had collapsed, the official <span id="lw_1249932739_12" class="yshortcuts">Xinhua News Agency</span> said. Four people died in Zhejiang, and two other deaths were reported in <span id="lw_1249932739_13" class="yshortcuts">Fujian</span> and Jiangxi province, Xinhua said.
<p>Before plowing into Taiwan, the storm hit the Philippines, where it killed 22.
<p>In <span id="lw_1249932739_14" class="yshortcuts">Japan</span>, 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.</p>
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<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></p></p></p></p></p></p></abbr></div></div>