City studies storm damage

Although Typhoon Xangsane left just one person dead in Taipei City, city councilors yesterday said there was still room for improvement in the city's disaster prevention and emergency response capabilities.

"It's lucky that we lost only one life. I don't know what we could have said if more lives were lost," said KMT City Councilor Li-Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳) at the Police and Hygiene Affairs Committee (警政衛生委員會) meeting held at the City Council to review Taipei's relief efforts during and after Typhoon Xangsane.

The nine-member committee yesterday invited the directors of four of the city's bureaus and departments to deliver briefings on the relief efforts carried out by their units.

The four units were the Taipei Fire Department (台北市消防局), the Bureau of Environmental Protection (環保局), the Taipei City Police Headquarters (台北市警察局) and the Bureau of Health (衛生局).

According to Chung Po-ching (張博卿), director of the Taipei Fire Department, Typhoon Xangsane -- which battered Taiwan last week, claimed one life and injured two in the city.

It also caused the worst flooding the city has seen in many years, especially in the flood-prone districts of Wenshan, Nankang and Neihu. About 48,000 families were left without power, more than 21,000 families' without phone services and more than 21,000 households without fresh water.

The Sun Empire Building (太陽帝國大廈) in Nankang, Chung said, is the last building in the city that still needs to pump water from its flooded six-level basement. Already, 40,000 tonnes of water has been pumped out.

Stephen Shen (沈世宏), director of the Bureau of Environmental Protection, said the bureau has cleaned about 5,500 tonnes of waste and removed more than 1,900 tonnes of silt from flood hit areas with the help of military forces. Areas suspected of being vulnerable to disease were disinfected.

Although no major crimes were committed during the typhoon, according to Wang Cho-chun (王卓鈞), director of the Taipei City Police Headquarters, the Tunghu Police Department (東湖派出所) in Neihu and the Fuho Abandoned Vehicle Storage Center (福和保管場) suffered severe flooding.

The Tunghu Police Department, which was flooded up to its first floor, lost most of its vehicles, including fire trucks and an ambulance.

Although police headquarters has hired private tow trucks and storage operators to help relocate 171 motor vehicles from the Fuho storage site, located under the Fuho Bridge over Hsintien Creek, the leftover 924 additional motor vehicles and 4,176 scooters were soaked in muddy water from the creek.

"We've been desperately looking for a different, safer location because we haven't been able to auction off the abandoned vehicles since a change in the law last December. The number of vehicles there just keeps growing," Wang said.

KMT City Councilor Chen Li-hui (陳孋輝) proposed using the site of the Futekeng landfill (福德坑) in Mucha, which is now closed.