A barrier lake burst its banks on Tuesday afternoon, sending a wall of water into the township of Guangfu.
Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai called on Wednesday (Sep 24) for an inquiry into what went wrong with evacuation orders in an eastern county where flooding from a breached mountain lake during a strong typhoon killed 14, as fresh warnings spooked residents.
Sub-tropical Taiwan, frequently hit by typhoons, normally has a well-oiled disaster mechanism that averts mass casualties by moving people out of potential danger zones quickly.
But many residents in Guangfu, an inundated town in the beauty spot of Hualien, thronged by tourists, said there was insufficient warning when the lake overflowed during Tuesday’s torrential rains brought by Super Typhoon Ragasa.
Cho said the immediate priority was to find the 129 still missing, but questions remained.
“For the 14 who have tragically passed away, we must investigate why evacuation orders were not carried out in the designated areas,” he told reporters in Guangfu.
“This is not about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth.”
The barrier lake, formed by landslides triggered by earlier heavy rain in the island’s sparsely populated east, burst its banks to send a wall of water into Guangfu.
Resources were insufficient to help relocate those with disabilities, said Lamen Panay, a Hualien councillor, who added that government evacuation requests before the flood had not been mandatory.
Referring to guidance for people to head to higher floors, she said, “What we were facing wasn’t something ‘vertical evacuation’ could resolve.”
As heavy rain continued on and off in Hualien, police cars sounded sirens for a new flood warning in Guangfu on Wednesday, sending people scrambling for safer areas as residents and rescuers shouted, “the flood waters are coming, run fast”.
Taiwan has been lashed since Monday by the outer rim of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which is now hitting China’s southern coast and the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong.
LIKE A “TSUNAMI”
The water hit like a “tsunami”, said Guangfu postman Hsieh Chien-tung, who was able to flee to the second floor of the post office just in time. Later, he got home to find his car had been swept into the living room.
Fire officials said all the dead and missing were in Guangfu, where the waters swept away a major road bridge across a river.
Wang Tse-an, chief of the village of Dama, home to about 1,000 people in the township, said it had been flooded, with many still stranded.
“It’s chaotic now,” Wang told Reuters, adding that the critical task was to get people to safety in shelters, while supplies could not get through.
“There are mud and rocks everywhere. Some flooding has subsided but some remains.”
Regions across Taiwan have dispatched rescue teams to Hualien, with the military sending 340 troops to help.
In Guangfu, soldiers operating from an armoured personnel carrier to keep clear of thick mud in the streets went door-to-door handing out water and instant noodles.
About 5,200 people, or 60 per cent of the population, sought shelter on the higher floors of their own homes while most of the rest left to stay with families, government data showed.
The government said the overflow of the barrier lake released about 60 million tonnes of an estimated 91 million tonnes of water, enough to fill about 36,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools and the equivalent of a major southern reservoir.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office offered condolences, in a rare sign of goodwill from Beijing, which has a deep dislike of Taipei’s government.