President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday visited Hualien County, as rescue workers continued the search for 22 people missing after a strong typhoon flooded a lake and many elderly people were unable to evacuate in time.
The death toll, which was revised down to 14 from 17, followed heavy rains brought by the outer bands of Super Typhoon Ragasa, causing a barrier lake in the mountains to overflow and release a wall of water on Guangfu Township (光復).
The government also revised down the number of missing people from 33 to 22, as more people were traced.
Photo: CNA
Lai visited the military’s operation base set up at the township’s Taiwan Sugar Co facility to express his concern to victims of the disaster and follow up on developments.
He also visited a shelter at Fataan Presbyterian Church and told disaster victims they may seek lodging at nearby hotels, pledging that the government would cover the costs.
As the military is banned from entering private residences, the Ministry of National Defense should work with the local government and arrive at a consensus that would allow the military to enter the homes of the victims to help remove debris, Lai said.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
He also instructed the Water Resources Agency to repair all dikes and embankments within a month, but ideally within two weeks.
Subsequent reinforcement of the embankments should be completed before the Lunar New Year, while permanent dikes should be built before the flood season in April next year, Lai said.
He also instructed the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to set up a temporary replacement for the Mataian River Bridge (馬太鞍溪橋) within a month, and to replace it with a steel Bailey bridge.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
The government would pay the NT$2.45 billion (US$80.49 million) required to build a new bridge, Lai added.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday launched a dedicated account to accept private donations for disaster relief. The account, which is to remain open until Oct. 24, aims to raise NT$500 million, it said.
Donations can be made at all major convenience stores and LinePay, or to Land Bank of Taiwan Changchuen Branch (code: 005) account No. 102-005-201-966.
Overseas donations can be made to the same account, SWIFT Code: LBOTTWTP102.
The Hualien County Government is also accepting donations of supplies, including clothing, blankets, mats, dry food, camp beds, sleeping bags, medicine, slippers, beverages, period products, diapers and toiletries.
Supplies can be delivered to the parking lot behind the Hualien Sugar Factory or contact the factory at 0966-589021.
Meanwhile, the number of dead has prompted questions whether an order for civilians to move to their residences’ upper floors was appropriate, and what could have been done differently.
“Beyond mourning the victims, we must investigate the causes of death, which predominantly occurred on ground floors,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told a Cabinet meeting.
Many rural parts of Taiwan have large elderly populations, as the young move to cities to seek better job opportunities.
Chang Chih-hsiung, a youth representative of the Amis Fataan community, said the digital gap and ineffective communication were among the reasons why some older people did not evacuate.
“Some of them are not familiar with using cellphones,” he said. “The village warden held briefings, but people did not think it was that serious until it happened.”
Another problem was the sheer scale of flooding and the difficulty of predicting where it could hit.
Parts of the village were entirely evacuated, with people moved to shelters, but that area escaped the flood, while other spots where many opted to move to higher floors were hit far worse than expected, Chang said.
Dama Village (大馬) Warden Wang Tse-an (王梓安) said a mandatory evacuation order meant the village suffered no deaths.
“Dama was the first to be hit, but the damage is the smallest,” he said.
“That is because we designated houses for mandatory evacuation, but when the flood came to other villages, people there thought they could just do ‘vertical evacuation.’ They did not expect the flood to reach that high,” he said.
Wang said many meetings had been held since the lake was discovered in July, with several briefings delivered to villagers about the coming dangers and evacuation plans.
In July, severe rain brought by Tropical Storm Wipha caused a massive landslide in the upstream forest land along the Mataian River, creating the lake.
After the lake’s formation, the Ministry of Agriculture held meetings attended by multiple government bodies to discuss options, such as excavating the dam wall, controlled blasting and siphon pumping.
However, the remote mountain location, and a lack of road access meant heavy equipment and siphon pipes could not be implemented quickly enough, the ministry said.
Authorities said that they therefore focused on enhanced monitoring and downstream disaster mitigation.
Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said that using explosives to blow up the bank holding back the lake was too dangerous, as it could set off more landslides.
“While the red warning is still in place, please do not go near the river,” he told reporters in Taipei.
Additional reporting by CNA
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