Taiwan village 'wiped off map'
2004-08-27 11:02
Chupei - In less than 10 seconds the life of Chen Bi-chu was changed forever as a vast wall of mud smashed her flimsy house into pieces and buried her family.
Chen and her younger son pulled themselves free from the pile of rocks and mud, but her older son was crushed to death by the crumbling house. Two days later her mother-in-law remains buried under the rubble.
The stunned survivors of the landslide in a remote aborigine village in northern Taiwan consider themselves lucky. The accident on Wednesday, triggered by torrential rains brought by Typhoon Aere, wiped out their entire village and is believed to have killed at least 19 villagers.
The rubble from the 20 destroyed houses in the small farming village of Tochang together with the river of mud and rocks left a pile five-storeys high.
Rescuers have so far recovered eight bodies, but 11 villagers remained missing presumed dead.
"It all happened in a split second and there was just no time to escape," Chen said in Chupei, where she was treated in a hospital after being airlifted from the stricken village of Tochang.
'It was like the mountain cam crashing down'
"It was like the whole mountain came crashing down and falling on our village,"
Chen recalled, her voice cracking. The 38-year-old farmer has bruises and cuts on her jaw and limbs while her teeth were nearly all smashed by falling rocks.
Only around 20 of the 100 inhabitants of the village were home when disaster struck three days after Typhoon Aere, packing winds of 130km per hour, started dumping vast quantities of rain on the remote mountains.
A total of 1 335mm of rain fell on the area in three days, leading the government to issue a landslide warning to 80 towns across the island off the southeastern Chinese coast.
The tragedy has led to heated debate over why the village was not evacuated before disaster struck.
Tochang resident Chou Mei-li said her family had ignored an evacuation alert since the village had not experienced a mudslide since a typhoon in 1962.
"It never occurred to me that things could get this serious," said Chou, who was airlifted to safety with her baby, both unharmed.
"Now I fear returning to the village and I have to find a new place to live."
Cheng Yung-chin, the magistrate of Hsinchu County who is facing criticism for failing to evacuate the village, also blamed the catastrophe on the forces of nature.
"The whole mountain literally crumbled down in 10 seconds. It's beyond our imagination," he said, insisting that his office had followed the instructions of the central government to order an evacuation.
Tochang was the worst-hit of 26 aboriginal villages in Wufeng Township, where all the roads and a bridge leading to the outside world were destroyed.
At daybreak Friday a fleet of 18 army and police helicopters began flying hundreds of soldiers, official rescuers and volunteers from Chupei to Tochang, some 30 minutes' flight away.
Tonnes of food, water and communications equipment were airlifted to the village. The helicopters also took out panic-stricken tourists trapped in the once popular scenic spot as well as injured villagers.
As Typhoon Aere blew itself out over southern China, Taiwan was Friday still counting the cost. At least 13 people were confirmed dead on the island, while 21 others remain missing presumed dead.