Thursday August 13, 2009
Pressure mounts on Taiwan govt over mudslide rescues
By Ralph Jennings
CISHAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Pressure mounted on Taiwan's government on Thursday to speed up operations to rescue hundreds of residents of remote mountainous villages buried or stranded in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot.
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People help to carry supplies from a military helicopter in the flooded village in Chiayi county, southern Taiwan August 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Taiwan Military News Agency/Handout) |
The official death toll in Taiwan stood at 108 after the worst floods in decades washed out roads, sent dwellings crashing into rivers and forced authorities to deploy hundreds of helicopters for rescue missions.
The storm has badly damaged infrastructure in Taiwan's south, a stronghold of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, and will likely worsen already bleak forecasts for third quarter economic contraction.
Internet services were being restored, but repairs to undersea cables could take two months.
At a rescue hub in Cishan, patience was running thin among relatives waiting for days for news of family members in the path of mudslides that flattened villages such as Hsiao Lin and Namahsia.
"How can they be so slow? Clearly they should be sending more helicopters, right?" said Yan Min-rong, 29, as he pored over lists of survivors.
Rescuers found 6,500 villagers who had been stranded near Alishan, a scenic mountain spot, Taiwan's Central News Agency said. But hundreds remained unaccounted for in remote areas.
Taiwan's south has borne the brunt of Morakot and the opposition, in power from 2000 to 2008, has taken aim at President Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT).
"It's too slow. They don't care about the south. They just care about the north," said Chen Fu-rong, head of a funeral association in Kaohsiung, as she stood alongside bodies of victims.
The military has deployed more than 34,000 personnel and 382 helicopters, it said on its website (www.mnd.gov.tw). Ma and top government officials have been touring affected areas.
"The disaster is huge and many bridges were smashed. Vast numbers of people have been affected and the weather has been very bad," said Tseng Ching-liang, an army colonel in Cishan.
Helicopters have frequently been reduced to hovering over devastated areas and throwing down thick ropes to hoist stranded villagers to safety.
Bad weather has made even such operations difficult. One helicopter crashed into mountainous terrain earlier this week, killing its crew.
(Additional reporting by Joan Hsu)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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