With Typhoon Toraji dumping roughly 650mm of rain on Nantou County -- hardest hit during the 921 earthquake -- area residents yesterday not only had to contend with flooding, but also the threat of mudslides.
Residents of Chunken village (
At one stage, cars were seen floating in the torrents. Residents were forced to flee to the second floors of their buildings.
PHOTO: YOU WEN-YU, TAIPEI TIMES
"She clung to a pillar, but couldn't hold on," said an elderly man who had made it to a second floor sanctuary, as he wept about his wife who had tried to resist the waters and is now missing.
In the same village, TV crews from TVBS, ETTV, SET-N and Power TV, equipped with satellite news gathering trucks, were preparing to broadcast live reports from the area but were ultimately forced to abandon their trucks -- each worth more than NT$16 million -- as the rapids closed in on them.
In Nantou's Chushan township (竹山鄉), residents of the low-lying lands around the Mingchu bridge (名竹大橋) had to wade barefoot through a muddy field after the bridge collapsed under the deluge.
"There are three people who refuse to leave out of fear of losing all their property," a middle-aged resident said as he emerged from the muddy field and urged police to help persuade the trio to leave.
Some 20 households in neighboring Shangan village (
As the flood waters gradually subsided during the day, however, concerns about potential threats from mudslides were also raised in the Chiufen Erh Shan (九份二山) area of Nantou, where the water level in the area's dammed lakes had already exceeded danger levels.
"If some of the dammed lakes [in Nantou] overflow and trigger mudslides and it continues to pour, not only Nantou County but also neighboring Changhua County will be devastated," said Chou Kuang-yu (
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
RSS