Hsieh Mei-juan said she thought she was dreaming when she saw rocks tumbling down in front of her village hut. But when she heard her neighbors’ screams, she knew the nightmare was real.
The 32-year-old, nine months pregnant, gathered her four children and scrambled to her elder brother’s truck for cover.
“The rocks were raining down. They fell into the river in front of us as the water rushed upward and burst through their gaps into numerous fountains,” Hsieh said.
The water level from the nearby river was rising, swallowing her home along with the rest of Meilan (梅蘭), a tiny village in Kaohsiung county.
“The electricity was gone. People started crying and running around,” Hsieh said.
As the water rose, Hsieh knew the only way to save her children — aged three to eight — was to run to the top of the mountain.
“We were all running for our lives,” she said, still in shock a week after that fateful night last Saturday.
By the time rescue workers found Hsieh’s family and airlifted them to safety, the floods and mudslides unleashed by Typhoon Morakot had flattened her village and drowned hectares of ginger and yam ready for harvest.
Hers was a rare, lucky case, however, as she said most of her 100-member Meishan Aboriginal tribe remained missing.
For days, Hsieh was among hundreds of survivors waiting at a school-turned-rescue center in neighboring Cishan County for rescuers to bring back members of their clans on helicopters.
“I won’t leave here until everyone from my tribe comes back safe,” she said, lying on the ground with her belly bulging.
HOPES
Hopes swell every time a helicopter can be heard approaching the school’s sports field to land. Forced to stand at a distance, Hsieh and others scan the faces emerging from the aircraft.
A system has evolved where rescue workers now hold up a placard identifying the village of the latest batch of arriving survivors.
Family members rush to be reunited with their loved ones and break down in tears of joy as emergency workers try to calm them.
FEARS
Hsieh, like the others, has seen the scene unfold again and again, but as she watches the displays of relief and happiness, her own fears deepen.
“The emotions are complicated. I’m really touched seeing other families reunited. But I’m also extremely disappointed when those who come back are not who I ams looking for,” she said.
A teary-eyed Chan Hsiao-ying, 26, said she had been waiting for five days hoping for the safe return of her 30 family members trapped in Taoyuan Village (桃源).
She said she managed to speak to them by telephone a few days ago and knew that most of them — including her one-year-old child — were still alive.
“Helicopters touch down dozens of times everyday. And each time I am disappointed,” she said. “It’s difficult to endure when you are disappointed so many times in one day. My family is running out of food and my child has had no milk for a week.”
Some tried to stay upbeat, however. Chang Jing-cheng was on the phone with his brother-in-law when flash floods overturned the mango farmer’s plowing machine. Chang knew his relative was injured, but was confident he would see him alive again.
Chang said a rescue team agreed to fly a helicopter yesterday morning to where his brother-in-law was trapped.
“I am sure he will still be there waiting for us. He will be there,” Chang said.
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