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.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS