Monday August 10, 2009, 1:02 pm
Police: 400 Missing In Taiwan Mudslide
Typhoon Morakot Kills At Least 22 In Philippines
ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press Writer

POSTED: Sunday, August 9, 2009
UPDATED: 2:42 pm EDT August 10, 2009
AP Images
TAIPEI, Taiwan

A mudslide touched off by a deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for Monday, and military rescue helicopters unable to land because of the slippery ground dropped food to desperate survivors.

Typhoon Morakot slammed Taiwan over the weekend with as much as 80 inches (two meters) of rain, inflicting the worst flooding the island has seen in at least a half-century.

The storm submerged large swaths of farmland in chocolate-brown muck and swamped city streets before crossing the 112-mile-wide Taiwan Strait and hitting China, where it forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people.

A disaster appeared to be unfolding around the isolated southern village of Shiao Lin, which was hit by a mudslide Sunday at about 6 a.m. local time -- while many people were still asleep -- and was cut off by land from the outside world.

Speaking to The Associated Press, a Taiwanese police official who identified himself only by his surname, Wang, said 400 people were unaccounted for in the village. Wang said 100 people had been rescued or otherwise avoided the brunt of the disaster.

One of the rescued villagers, an unidentified middle-aged man, told police that his family of 10 had been wiped out.

"They're gone," he said, according to a local photographer who overheard the exchange. "All gone."

Another rescued villager, Lin Chien-chung, told the United Evening News that he believes as many as 600 people were buried in the mudslide.

"The mudslide covered a large part of the village including a primary school and many homes," Lin was quoted as saying. "A part of the mountain above us just fell on the village."

Lin said he and several neighbors moved to higher ground several hours before the mudslide hit because torrential rains had flooded their homes.

Taiwan's population register lists Shiao Lin as having 1,300 inhabitants, though many are believed to live elsewhere.

Under leaden gray skies, military helicopters hovered over the community, dropping food and looking for survivors. They were unable to land because of the slippery terrain.

Shiao Lin was cut off after floodwaters destroyed a bridge about 8 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, the prospects for an early resumption of overland travel were poor.

Elsewhere in Taiwan, an additional 54 people were listed as missing.

Authorities put the confirmed death toll in Taiwan at 14, but that seemed certain to rise.

The typhoon's path took it almost directly over the capital of Taipei, but its most destructive effects were in the heavily agricultural south and along the island's densely foliated mountain spine. Shiao Lin is on Taiwan's southwestern coast.

In rural Pingtung county, the rains turned rich swaths of farmland so sodden that it was difficult to distinguish them from the open sea. In the Pingtung community of Sandimen, troops maneuvered armored personnel carriers through flooded streets, plucking whole families from water-logged buildings and ferrying them to safety.

In Taitung, in the southeastern lowlands, a raging flood toppled a five-story hotel.

Anxious relatives in Taitung county begged President Ma Ying-jeou to help their loved ones.

"You must try to save my father," cried one. "Please, I beg you to save my father."

After pummeling Taiwan, Morakot slammed into China's Fujian province, directly across the strait, with heavy rain and winds of 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according the China Meteorological Administration. At least one child died after a house collapsed in Zhejiang province.

Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses had collapsed, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Four people died in Zhejiang, and two other deaths were reported in Fujian and Jiangxi province, Xinhua said.

Before plowing into Taiwan, the storm hit the Philippines, where it killed 22.

In Japan, meanwhile, Typhoon Etau slammed into the western coast Monday. Twelve people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides, and 10 others were missing, police said.

Monday August 10, 2009, 2:00 pm
Noted with great sadness. Thanks Raffi for sharing.

Monday August 10, 2009, 5:23 pm
Oh this is so awful. Those poor people.
Thanks Raffi

Monday August 10, 2009, 5:44 pm
How horrible. They are in my prayers. Thanks Raffi.

Monday August 10, 2009, 6:06 pm
Poor people, Raffi, why are all your stories so sad tonight?

Monday August 10, 2009, 6:30 pm
This awful weather seems to be getting worse all the time, so that people don't even have a chance to evacuate. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose whole chunks of a village, and the people in it.

Monday August 10, 2009, 6:31 pm
I just got this breaking off AP- In Beijing-I suspect this is not even the beginning of the incidents that are about to unfold.

Landslide Topples 6 Buildings In China
Unknown Number Of Residents Buried
PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer

POSTED: Monday, August 10, 2009
UPDATED: 9:07 pm EDT August 10, 2009
BEIJING -- A state news agency says a massive landslide has toppled at least six apartment buildings burying an unknown number of residents in eastern China.

The official Xinhua News Agency says the landslide in the town of Pengxi in Zhejiang province was triggered by heavy rains carried by the storm Morakot.

Xinhua says Tuesday the landslide destroyed at least six four-story apartment buildings at the foot of a mountain at 10:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT).

It cites rescuers as saying it is not immediately known how many people were buried.

Morakot has left six people dead and three others missing in China after landing on Sunday. Authorities evacuated 1.4 million people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Monday August 10, 2009, 6:53 pm
Thanks, but I fear this is just the beginning...don't mean to be the DOOM of all here guys, but MAN has pushed Mother Nature way to far and actually I fear, it is all going to be falling apart very soon!

NO NEXT GENERATION, RIGHT NOW!!!

PRAYING FOR THOSE PEOPLE, THIS IS TOTALLY SAD....

Monday August 10, 2009, 7:43 pm
these pictures have to be seen to be believed:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/typhoon_morakot.html

Tuesday August 11, 2009, 7:32 am
Raf, Thanks for the link to the photos it's very enligntening to see people helping one another and also a reminder from above to all of us of our mortality.

Tuesday August 11, 2009, 9:24 am
I completely agree with Marilyn, we (people) are responsible for all this :-( Thank you Rafael.

Tuesday August 11, 2009, 10:29 am
I have seen this on the news. The distress and fear of the people is heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing Raffi.

Tuesday August 11, 2009, 3:29 pm
Prayers are with all the victims. Mankind does not ask for disasters - and those who have befouled the earth's atmosphere are rarely punished - innocents suffer. May God watch over them, and give them the strength to hold fast during this terrible time of sorrow and worry.

Thank you Raffi

Tuesday August 11, 2009, 3:38 pm
Check picture #24 and #29 and #36

comments on the picture site:
======================
121. what amazes me is that in places like china and taiwan despite limited resources the authorities reacted much better than our american one's in katrina..
Posted by jim August 11, 09 09:23 AM

122. #29 is such a tender moment, look at their eyes locking in the midst of chaos.. God bless them.