Sub-tropical Taiwan, frequently hit by typhoons, normally has a well-oiled disaster mechanism that averts mass casualties by moving people out of potential danger zones quickly
International News via Reuters:
Residents in a Taiwan town where flooding from a typhoon killed 17 people sought shelter on Wednesday fearing further disaster after a lake burst its banks, as Premier Cho Jung-tai called for an inquiry into what went wrong with evacuation orders.
Sub-tropical Taiwan, frequently hit by typhoons, normally has a well-oiled disaster mechanism that averts mass casualties by moving people out of potential danger zones quickly.
But many residents in Guangfu, an eastern town in the beauty spot of Hualien, thronged by tourists, said there was insufficient warning when a lake overflowed during Tuesday’s torrential rains brought by Super Typhoon Ragasa.
The barrier lake, formed by landslides triggered by earlier heavy rain in the island’s sparsely populated east, burst and sent a wall of water into Guangfu.
NUMBER OF MISSING REVISED DOWN
Cho said the immediate priority was to find those missing. The original number of 152 was revised down to just 17 after many people were located alive.
“For the 14 who have tragically passed away, we must investigate why evacuation orders were not carried out in the designated areas,” he told reporters in Guangfu, before the death toll was adjusted up in the afternoon, to 17.
“This is not about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth.”
Fire officials said all the dead and missing were in Guangfu, where the waters destroyed a major road bridge across a river.
As heavy rain continued on and off in Hualien, police cars sounded sirens for a new flood warning in Guangfu on Wednesday, sending people scrambling for safer areas as residents and rescuers shouted: “The flood waters are coming, run fast.”
“We will not return until the overflow is finished or the risk of it bursting is reduced. It’s too dangerous,” said a woman who gave her family name as Tsai from a packed emergency shelter in an elementary school.
NO REPEAT OF MASS FLOODING EXPECTED
Deputy disaster command centre chief Huang Chao-chin said with rainfall easing and much of the water from the lake already released, he did not expect a repeat of Tuesday’s mass flooding.
Lamen Panay, a Hualien councillor, said government evacuation requests before the flood had not been mandatory.
Referring to guidance for people to head to higher floors, she said: “What we were facing wasn’t something ‘vertical evacuation’ could resolve.”
About 5,200 people, or 60% of the population, sought shelter on the higher floors of their own homes while most of the rest left to stay with families, government data showed.
But the government said the overflow of the barrier lake released about 60 million tonnes of an estimated 91 million tonnes of water, enough to fill about 36,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Taiwan has been lashed since Monday by the outer rim of Typhoon Ragasa, which was downgraded from a super typhoon and is now hitting China’s southern coast and the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong.
WATER HIT LIKE A ‘TSUNAMI’
The water hit like a “tsunami”, said Guangfu postman Hsieh Chien-tung, who was able to flee to the second floor of the post office just in time. Later, he got home to find his car had been swept into the living room.
Regions across Taiwan have dispatched rescue teams to Hualien, with the military sending 340 troops to help.
In Guangfu, soldiers operating from an armoured personnel carrier to keep clear of thick mud in the streets went door-to-door handing out water and instant noodles. Wrecked cars and scooters were littered around.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office offered condolences, in a rare sign of goodwill from Beijing, which has a deep dislike of Taipei’s government.
China views Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the island’s democratically elected government.
Besides the wilderness beauty that makes it one of Taiwan’s top tourist draws, Hualien is also home to many members of the island’s indigenous groups, including the Amis.
The typhoon brought about 1 metre (3.2 ft) of rain to parts of Taiwan’s east, though the populous west coast, home to the crucial semiconductor industry, was not affected.
In 2009, Typhoon Morakot brought destruction to Taiwan’s south, killing about 700 and causing damage of up to $3 billion.
Reporting by Yimou Lee, Fabian Hamacher and Ann Wang; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Stephen Coates, Clarence Fernandez, Lincoln Feast and Alison Williams
