"The people of Taipei seem a little bit ungrateful to me, compared to people elsewhere," said the 21 year old from Pingtung County who joined relief efforts on Thursday.
In addition to support from the military, municipal clean-up teams and private gravel truck companies also pitched in to help.
Liang Hung-lang (
Liang, whose day started at 8am and concluded at around 3 or 4am the following morning, said that although he felt exhausted after working such long hours, he felt obliged to serve the public, especially during a time of disaster.
"We are, after all, civil servants," he said.
Liang's job is to assign over 20 municipal garbage trucks and 40 private gravel trucks to transport garbage collected in the Nankang District to the Nankang commercial park, the other temporary transport site.
Gravel truck driver Chang Chin-hui (
He and the four others were taking turns showering at the municipal Physical Education College, which is next to the baseball stadium, on Friday evening.
"We don't come here to get paid more, and we don't get paid more anyway.
"We come here because we know we have to do something to help other people," said Chang, who has been driving gravel trucks between Miaoli and Hsinchu Counties for six years.
Wu Hsiu-lan (
Wu's job is to find as many gravel trucks and bulldozers as possible for the squadron.
"We have gravel trucks coming from as far as Taichung. We also have four bulldozers coming from Miaoli County," she said.
As of yesterday, Wu said she has garnered 150 vehicles and 300 people to help.
"I'm still worried that we won't be able to finish the job on Sunday as required by the mayor. If that's the case, I might as well jump out of the window since it's the best we can do," she said.
As soon as the relief program ends, Wu said, she plans to take a long vacation, probably as long as a month.
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