Daily News Channel
More than 1,300 people are still trapped in remote mountainous villages in southern Taiwan, victims of treacherous mudslides and floods from Typhoon Morakot, the country’s semiofficial Central News Agency said Saturday. Rescue officials quoted by the news agency said 1,373 were still trapped and 75 helicopters were scheduled to conduct rescue missions Saturday in the counties of Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Taitung and Chiayi.
The number of people killed in Taiwan by Typhoon Morakot, a destructive storm that swept through East Asia last week, could triple because hundreds of people are feared trapped under mudslides, the president’s office said Friday. The official toll from the typhoon was 118 but could jump to more than 300, with as many as 200 feared buried under five stories of mud in the badly-hit village of Shiao Lin, presidential spokesman Wang Yuchi said.