Taiwanese rescuers assist landslide survivors after they were evacuated by military helicopter Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, in Chishan, Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan. Taiwan's military rescued about 260 typhoon victims Tuesday from the area around a village consumed by a massive mudslide, local TV stations reported, but there is still no word on the fate of hundreds of others caught in the disaster
A young Taiwanese landslide survivor is held by a family member after they were evacuated by military helicopter following Typhoon Morakot, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, in Chishan, Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan. Taiwan's military rescued about 260 typhoon victims Tuesday from the area around a village consumed by a massive mudslide, local TV stations reported, but there is still no word on the fate of hundreds of others caught in the disaster.
Armored Personnel Carriers bring rescue workers through a flooded street of Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried.
A young woman pauses as she cleans furniture in a flooded street of Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried.
In this image taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, and released by the Taiwan Military News Agency on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, an aerial view of the flooded village of Shao Lin inflicted by Typhoon Morakot is seen in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county. A mudslide touched off by the deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while officially there are 38 dead and 62 missing.
A massive landslide is seen across a mountain road in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried.
In this image taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, and released by the Taiwan Military News Agency on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, an aerial view of the flooded village of Shao Lin inflicted by Typhoon Morakot is seen in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county. A mudslide touched off by the deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while officially there are 38 dead and 62 missing.
An elderly man is carried after being rescued by military helicopter from a village covered in a landslide from Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried
-In this image taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, and released by the Taiwan Military News Agency on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, a soldier sifts through debris from Typhoon Morakot in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county. A mudslide touched off by the deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while officially there are 38 dead and 62 missing. (AP Photo/Taiwan Military News Agency)-
Taiwan said as many as 500 people may have been killed by landslides in the country’s south after Typhoon Morakot unleashed the worst floods in 50 years.
Morakot, a storm more than 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) wide according to satellite images, destroyed as many as 150 houses in the village of Shiao Lin, Taiwan’s National Fire Agency said.
“There’s about 500 people who were buried by the mud, but we don’t have the exact number,” Leng Chia-yu, a section chief with the agency, said by telephone today.
The typhoon dumped a record 3,063 millimeters (120 inches) of rain in Alishan after it started buffeting the island on Aug. 6. Floods wrecked at least 11 bridges in southern Chishan and 136 roads across the country were closed because of rock falls and high waters, according to the Transport Ministry.
About 200 people were trapped in Namashia with the military dropping 200 kilograms of supplies and evacuating 10 people for medical treatment, the NFA said. Helicopter flights into Shiao Lin and Namashia were suspended later because of fog, it said.
The NFA has flown 21 helicopter missions into Shiao Lin and 13 into Namashia in the past two days, Leng said today.
A group of 300 people slept in cemeteries in Namahsia village where schools and libraries were destroyed, local television TVBS reported today. A young man carried his sick father on his back and rode a helicopter to safety, the news channel said.
Officials said more than 300 people were brought out Tuesday on up to 120 flights from a large mountainous area in Kaohsiung to an improvised landing zone at Cishan Junior High School. The people saved came from Shiao Lin and surrounding villages, officials said.
Those rescued Tuesday escaped the mudslide by running to higher ground, from where they were plucked by the helicopters. But those saved from other villages — which are miles (kilometers) away from Shiao Lin — had enough time to run to open ground.
Taiwan's population registry lists Shiao Lin as having 1,300 inhabitants, though many are believed to live elsewhere.
The village's almost total isolation complicated reporting about its fate. Shiao Lin was cut off after floodwaters destroyed a bridge about eight miles (12 kilometers) away. A back road wending its way northward toward the mountain community of Alishan was also believed to be cut off, and with rain still falling in the area, prospects for an early resumption of overland travel were poor.
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