After flooding the capital, Tropical Storm Nari dumped more rain on areas prone to deadly landslides yesterday, forcing people to evacuate their homes by wading through waist-deep water. The storm's death toll by press time had risen to 59.
Of the 59 deaths more than 10 people were buried in mudslides and two were electrocuted. The rest drowned in flooding, emergency officials said.
Twenty-one people were missing and over 150 people were injured, officials said.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Nari was downgraded to a tropical storm from a typhoon yesterday.
About 8,000 soldiers were mobilized to help clean up storm damage.
Tropical storms and typhoons frequently hit Taiwan during the summer, but they usually sweep over the island within a day. But slow-moving Nari, which began lashing Taiwan early Monday, continued to hover over the island, becoming the longest-lasting tropical storm in the nation's recorded history, staying over the island for more than 50 hours.
``The amount of rain was incredible, breaking any one-day rainfall record'' since officials began keeping records in 1930, said forecaster Lu Kuo-cheng (
Several cities recorded up to 800mm of rain in a day, about one-third of the average annual rainfall, Lu said.
After flooding Taipei and other northern cities on Monday, Nari made its way toward west-central Taiwan and as of 9pm last night was 30km south southwest of Chiayi. Rivers overflowed and mudslides racked Chiayi and Tainan Counties yesterday. Nantou County, however, which saw major casualties during mudslides triggered by late July's Typhoon Toraji, was virtually unscathed.
In Chiayi, two villagers from Chuchi township were buried alive while attempting to watch mudslides.
Residents in Chuchi, Alishan, Meishan and Fanlu were evacuated following mudslide warnings.
Niuchou Creek in Chiayi County overflowed, trapping more than 2,000 people.
The Chiayi County Government sent out 12 lifeboats to save these residents and another 20 buses took them to Hsingchung Elementary School and Da-chi Junior High School, where two temporary shelters were set up by the county government.
In Chiayi City, there are no major injuries or damage.
"Typhoon Nari may be called the `weirdest' typhoon," said Chen Li-chen (
The area was also hit by two earthquakes yesterday. An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred in Tapu, Chiayi, at 6:44am. Another quake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale occurred in Nantou County yesterday afternoon.
In Tainan County the three main rivers, Tsengwen Creek, Chi-shui Creek and Pachang Creek, were all near overflowing at press time.Tainan County Councilor Liu Kui-miao (
Army troops stationed in Kuantien township -- about 40 minutes outside of Tainan City -- were sent in to help repair the broken embankments of the Chishui river.
Water from Tsengwen Creek overflowed into six villages in Tainan County and trapped more than 100 people. The Tainan Fire Department has sent out rafts to save the residents.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Three state-run banks offered low-interest loans worth NT$10 billion to help the victims to rebuild their homes.
One newspaper put losses at four industrial parks in northern Taiwan at around NT$1 billion.
The storm inundated about 1,700 hectares of rice paddies and other crops. Total agricultural damage was estimated at more than NT$365 million, the agriculture council said.
Nari spent weeks whirling in the Pacific east of Taiwan. Before hitting the island Monday, Taiwanese already started calling Nari one of the weirdest storms ever to threaten the island because of the erratic twists and turns it made. It weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm after it swept across Taiwan.
Most of the serious damage was reported in the Taipei area.
About 650,000 households were left without electricity and water was cut off to 670,000 households in Taipei. It was unclear how long it would take to restore services.
"I have no electricity, no water at home. Nothing. I feel like a refugee," said a weary-looking woman clutching a toothbrush as she walked into a crowded McDonald's to clean herself up in the restroom.
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