The body of a woman was found yesterday in a vehicle near a quarry in Hualien County’s Guangfu Township (光復) after a barrier lake on the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) burst on Sept. 23 amid Super Typhoon Ragasa, bringing the death toll from the disaster to 19.
The badly bent vehicle was found buried in mud and debris about one story high, said Jian Hong-cheng (簡弘丞), head of the Hualien County Fire Department’s search-and-rescue unit.
The deceased is believed to be the missing owner of a quarry site, Jian said, adding that the car was registered in her name.
Photo: Huang Meng-ching, Taipei Times
Local police and firefighters have dispatched machinery to excavate the vehicle and recover the body inside, with the quarry site deploying four excavators to assist in the effort, he said.
The identity of the body would be confirmed after it is recovered from the vehicle, he said.
The barrier lake breach flood had claimed 19 lives, while five people are missing.
In other news, two major earthquakes struck off Hualien County yesterday morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries, but the back-to-back quakes renewed safety concerns in areas still recovering from the damage caused by flooding.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency confirmed that the Mataian barrier lake’s dam and water level remained stable after the first quake.
The situation after the second temblor was still being assessed as of press time.
The second quake, measuring magnitude 5, occurred at 11:33am, with its hypocenter at 68.4km southeast of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 28.9km. The tremor registered an intensity level of 3 in parts of Hualien and neighboring Taitung County.
It followed an earlier magnitude 5 quake at 7:52am in Jian Township (吉安) 6.9km west of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 6.1km, CWA data showed.
The two quakes were independent events, occurring about 70km apart, CWA seismologists said as they cautioned that aftershocks of magnitude 4 to 4.5 could occur over the next three days as regional stress continues to adjust.
Both quakes were caused by the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate, seismologists said, adding that Jian often experiences magnitude 5 earthquakes, but the offshore region affected by the later quake has fewer such events.
Meanwhile, Central Emergency Operation Center chief coordinator Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) said that starting today, military personnel and equipment would transfer to Fozu Street (佛祖街), which reported the most serious damage in Guangfu.
Mud and debris on roads and in homes have almost entirely been cleared, with the remaining refuse being mostly in ditches, Chi said.
About one-third of ditches in impacted urban areas have been cleared already, with completion expected between tomorrow and Wednesday next week, he said.
Household water and electricity have been restored, he added.
In other news, Tropical Storm Nakri formed yesterday, but projections show that it is unlikely to directly impact Taiwan, the CWA said.
As of 2pm, Nakri was in waters 1,830km east-southeast of Taipei, moving northwest at 27kph.
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