As floods and mudslides hit Hualien County yesterday, residents of the east coast county said the damage was the worst they had ever seen.
Typhoon Toraji -- arriving with gales and heavy downpours late Sunday night -- caused landslides and floods throughout Hualien County, claiming at least 21 lives.
Hundreds of residents were left homeless as their houses were either flooded or buried in mudslides.
Roads, railways and bridges were also destroyed by the storm, and blackouts hit hundreds of thousands of families.
"I've never seen anything worse than this. Everything was gone in just seconds," said a resident of Kuangfu township (光復鄉), looking at the ruins left by the storm.
At least 18 Kuangfu residents died in mudslides, and 39 were still missing.
Two Kuangfu policemen -- Lin Teh-fu (林德夫) and Tsai Cheng-tsai (蔡振財) -- were swept away by the storm while driving in a patrol van. Lin, 41, was found dead in the van after rescue forces pulled the vehicle from a river. Tsai is still missing.
Lin had served in the police force for 12 years and Tsai for 19 years. Both were Aborigines from the A-mei tribe.
Lin's wife, who is pregnant, collapsed and cried as she learned of her husband's death, while Tsai's wife kept asking when her husband would return.
The Central Disaster Relief Center estimated that crop damage in Hualien County was NT$120 million, qualifying residents for government aid.
While the county was being pounded by the typhoon, Hualien County Commissioner Wang Ching-feng (王慶豐) was in Taipei yesterday attending the KMT's 16th national congress.
Wang said he had wanted to return on Sunday night but all flights had been canceled. "I kept in communication with local officials and was kept up to date about which areas were suffering from the worst calamities," he said.
Minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (張博雅) said Wang's absence was hardly justifiable, as the county commissioner should have overseen disaster relief efforts in the county.
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