Water purification tablets, tents, prefabricated homes and other foreign aid arrived yesterday as typhoon-battered Taiwan coped with the aftermath of its worst weather disaster in 50 years.
A US military C-130 transport aircraft from a US airbase in Okinawa, Japan, arrived at Tainan Air Force Base with 6,800kg of plastic sheeting for makeshift housing, the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) said.
This was the first official landing by a US military transport aircraft at a military airbase in Taiwan for humanitarian purposes since the US switched political recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1979 and pulled out its US troops based in Taiwan.
PHOTO: HUANG MING-TANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The aircraft arrived in Tainan at 2:50pm and flew back to Okinawa immediately after discharging its cargo.
“We have been looking at what materials are available and what kind of services we have to commute the items Taiwan needs,” Christopher Kavanagh, press officer at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), told the Central News Agency.
At least one US heavy-lift CH-53E helicopter will arrive in Taiwan today to assist in relief operations in southern Taiwan, Ministry of National Defense officials said yesterday, adding it would be delivered by an amphibious transport dock ship — also known as a landing platform dock — in waters near Taiwan, from where the chopper will fly to the Tainan air base.
PHOTO: CNA
“The US military is now working to have its CH-53E helicopter take part in humanitarian post-disaster relief efforts in Taiwan,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
As the CH-53E chopper can transport a 16-tonne payload, its arrival is expected to help with relief and rehabilitation work in mountainous areas that were cut off from the outside world in the storm, the official said.
Representatives of the US Agency for International Development have arrived to assess what additional aid Taiwan may need. The EU will also send representatives to Taiwan in the coming days for the same purpose.
PHOTO: CNA
The government said it also received US$1.14 million in medical supplies from Singapore and water purifiers and high-speed water-transport equipment from Israel.
An Emirates Airlines flight arrived in Taipei early yesterday with shelter boxes donated by the UK’s Shelter Box Trust, which is administered by the Helston-Lizard Rotary Club in Cornwall, disaster response officials said.
The shelter boxes, which will soon be delivered to the hardest-hit disaster zones, contain a 10-person tunnel tent, 10 sleeping bags and accessories including a multifuel cooker, water purifier, a spade and rope.
China Airlines also airlifted a shipment of emergency supplies donated by Australia to Taipei early yesterday free of charge. The supplies include 200,000 water purification tablets, 5,040 large buckets for treating water and for general household use, 100 sanitizer spray packs that hold disinfectant, and repellent to spray around buildings for disease prevention.
Fan Liqing (范麗青), a spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, was quoted by CNA as saying that “whatever Taiwan needs, we will work to assist.”
The CEOC said the first shipment of prefabricated homes promised by China would arrive tomorrow.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said more than 59 countries have offered to provide assistance to Taiwan.
Pope Benedict XVI also donated US$50,000, it said.
Meanwhile, rescue and cleanup entered its ninth day as helicopters continued crisscrossing southern mountainous regions to airlift survivors. As many as 41,000 troops fought raging rivers and crossed broken roads and collapsed bridges to reach victims, many of whom have been without food for more than a week.
More than 1,370 people still needed to be airlifted from four devastated areas, government officials said, adding that the major road leading to Namasiya Township’s (那瑪夏) Maya Village (瑪雅) in Kaohsiung County, for example, had been completely washed away by raging water and mudslides.
The storm has killed at least 124 people. This number does not include the hundreds of people believed to have been buried in landslides, especially in Xiaolin Village (小林) in Kaohsiung County’s Jiaxian Township (甲仙).
Xiaolin Self-help Association members said yesterday the main factor behind the landslide was likely poor construction at the Tsengwen Reservoir nearby.
The survivors said that for the past 100 years, their ancestors lived in the mountain and no mudslide of this scale ever occurred.
“We demand national compensation … We will bring the name plaques of the deceased to the County Government to ask for this and if our pleas are not answered, we will go north to the Presidential Office,” they said.
The villagers reached a consensus on several demands they will make of the government, including that the cause of the landslide be investigated, that national compensation be provided to survivors, that the village be rebuilt elsewhere, that death certificates for missing individuals be issued as soon as possible and that a water ditch to alleviate flooding be dug. They also asked that buried bodies not be unearthed.
“My most respected [Control Yuan] President Wang [Chien-shien] and President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)], please form a committee and determine who was responsible for this, return justice to Xiaolin Village,” a Xiaolin survivor said.
Before the consensus was reached, the survivors engaged in a heated debate on whether bodies of their buried loved ones should be dug out.
A villager who voted against digging said that even if his parents were disinterred, their bodies would be in pieces.
Another said that even if his parents were dead, “I have to see their bodies, I need closure.”
Meanwhile, survivors in Taoyuan Township yesterday protested against Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) for saying on Saturday that Taoyuan Township chief Hsieh Chui-yao (謝垂耀) had “abandoned the township and escaped.”
“How is Taoyuan Township going to begin reconstruction work if the township chief has run away?” Yang had said.
Hsieh’s wife and son-in-law said yesterday that Hsieh was still in the mountain, adding that he had only wanted to come down to collect resources for his township.
Hsieh’s son-in-law said that about 300 people remained in Taoyuan Township’s Kaochong (高中), Baoshan (寶山) and Fuhsing (復興) villages.
“Are Aborigines not humans too? We pay taxes too. The government must send someone to save our families. Must we become the next Xiaolin Village before the government takes us seriously?” he asked.
In Shenmu Village (神木), Nantou County, about 300 people were still trapped after the only bridge to the village collapsed.
Back at the relief center in Sindian City (新店), Taipei County, CEOC Commander Mao Chih-kuo (毛治國) struggled to answer questions asked by foreign reporters at an international press conference.
While rebutting accusations from foreign media that the government was incapable of handling the emergency, Mao did not provide clear responses to most of the questions.
“I don’t think the government is incapable as some media outlets have speculated,” Mao told Japanese media outlets NHK and Asahi News. “I inspected roads in Jiaxian, Liukuei (六龜) and Maolin (茂林) townships [Kaohsiung County] as early as Aug. 9 and Aug. 10 to see which areas could be cut off from the outside world after the storm.”
He said the information he gathered was used as reference to the military’s rescue efforts.
“As for the delayed rescue efforts, since helicopters are our main tool, deciding whether to fly helicopters into devastated areas really depends on weather conditions,” he said.
Asked when the accurate death toll at Xiaolin Village would be released, Mao said a series of procedures would have to be completed before the government could release the number. Asked to elaborate on the procedures, Mao only repeated the previous remark.
Asked by the Wall Street Journal what kind of assistance Taiwan expected to receive from Japan and the US, and how supplies and help from those two countries would be used, Mao said Taiwan has been updating the list of supplies as they arrive and that it would continue to do so.
Another reporter asked where the helicopters from the US would be dispatched once they arrived, Mao said the government would “make further assessments.”
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