Foreign aid flows in as typhoon-battered Taiwan tries to rescue survivors, rebuild south

Taiwan typhoon survivors struggle as aid arrives

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Water purification tablets, tents, prefabricated homes and other foreign aid arrived in Taiwan on Sunday as the typhoon-battered island coped with the aftermath of its worst weather disaster in 50 years.

Thousands of displaced survivors remained at temporary shelters in stadiums and tent cities a week after Typhoon Morakot hit, unleashing massive landslides and flooding that killed more than 500 people in southern and central Taiwan.

An American transport plane arrived at the Tainan Air Base in the south with 15,000 pounds (6,800 kilograms) of plastic sheeting for makeshift housing, the country’s disaster relief center said.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said helicopters from the U.S. that can carry cranes and backhoes were expected to arrive soon to help rescue those who might still be trapped, and to aid the rebuilding of roads in typhoon-ravaged villages.

Water purification tablets from Australia and tents and sleeping bags donated by German charity groups were scheduled to arrive in a day or two, it said.

Resettlement of the estimated 7,000 people whose homes were destroyed by mudslides and flooding could speed up after the first batch of prefabricated homes promised by rival China arrive Monday, the relief center said.

More than 59 countries have offered aid to Taiwan, the Foreign Ministry said. Pope Benedict XVI also donated $50,000.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou put the overall death toll on Friday at about 500, making it the island’s deadliest weather disaster since 1959 when more than 600 perished in a typhoon.

Morakot dumped more than 80 inches (2 meters) of rain and stranded thousands in villages in the mountainous south. As of Saturday night, a total of 21,199 villagers had been ferried to safety and rescuers were working to save another 4,224 people.

The rescue operation has relied mainly on helicopters because bridges were collapsed and roads were washed away. At the Cishan landing zone in the south — a main drop off point for those rescued — hundreds have waited anxiously for days hoping to find any relatives airlifted to safety.

A bleak future awaited many of the survivors staying at crammed temporary shelters as charity workers cooked them food and distributed clothes.

Among the survivors was 67-year-old Huang Jih, who walked hours to safety through the rugged terrain of Taimali village in the south, carrying his mother on his back. Now he was worried about how he could support his family of seven.

“I have lost all my things,” his 102-year-old mother Tseng Jih told ETTV Station, crying on her makeshift bed. “What am I going to wear when I die?”

CTI TV showed a 2-year-old girl munching on a rice dumpling because the temporary shelter she stayed at in Kaohsing had run out of infant formula. The girl, rescued by relatives from her mud-buried home, apparently did not know her parents had died.

People all over Taiwan have rushed to deliver food to hard-hit villages.

Dozens of taxi drivers halted work in Taipei on Sunday and used their yellow cabs to transport rice, instant noodles and other food to the south, TV reports said.