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Typhoon Path
Preperations - August 5, 2009: 20:30, the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan issued a Sea Typhoon Alert for Morakot.
- August 6, 2009: Severe Tropical Storm Morakot intensified into a typhoon.
- August 7, 2009: Morakot was closing in on Taiwan. It moved very slowly and it made landfall just before midnight.
- August 8, 2009: After midnight, most of the districts in south Taiwan recorded heavy rainfall.
An entire village was buried at the southern county of Kaohsiung as roads were left damaged and landscape changed. Other affected areas included the Taimali River mouth, the Jihben River catchment, the Gaoping River bridge linking the Linyuan to Xinyuan townships at the boundary between the Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, and several catchments in Pingtung County where the rivers flow into the Taiwan Strait. Close to 700 people were killed or missing as a result.
Impact
After Morakot landed in the midnight of August 8, almost the entire southern region of Taiwan (Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung counties) and parts of Taitung County and Nantou County were flooded by record-breaking heavy rain. The rainfall in Pingtung County exceeded 2,600 millimetres (100 in), breaking all rainfall records of any single place in Taiwan induced by a single typhoon. Airlines in Taiwan did hold some flights in and out of airports, but seaports were closed. Electricity supplies were cut to approximately 25,000 homes.
Reports indicated that at least 600 people were missing throughout southern Taiwan. Most were residents of Xiaolin (小林村), a mountain village with 1,300 residents in Jiaxian Township. The village was buried by a massive mudslide that destroyed most of the town. It is estimated that 118 people died in the village due to the mudslide, which reports indicated covered all but two houses. It was reported that all roads toward Namaxia Township were either blocked or washed away by severe mudslides. Hundreds of residents were trapped for four days, and were running out of food and water. In addition, water and electricity had been cut. A rescue helicopter, working to retrieve survivors of the mudslide crashed into a mountain side early on August 11, killing the three occupants. Crews were unable to reach the wreckage due to the steep terrain.
A swollen river in Taitung County undermined 51 homes and swept them away into the Pacific, leaving numerous residents homeless. No people were in the homes when they fell into the river. In the famous Zhiben (知本) hot springs area, the six-story Jinshuai Hotel was destroyed when it collapsed into the Zhiben River after being undermined by flood waters. Several stores in front of the hotel were washed away days earlier as the river continued to overflow its banks and inundate nearby towns and cities. Running water in Tainan County to 280,000 was shut down as flood waters contaminated the local reservoir.
Throughout Taiwan, at least 107 people were confirmed to have been killed by the storm as of August 13. The record-breaking rains also caused catastrophic agricultural losses, with estimates reaching NT$9 billion ($274 million USD). At its peak, roughly 1.58 million were without power across the island and over 710,000 were without water pressure. Tourism losses due to the typhoon were estimated to be at least NT$800 million ($24.4 million USD).
However, Morakot also ended a month-long drought and replenished reservoirs enough to warrant an end to water rationing.
The "Little Three Links" between Kinmen of the Republic of China and Xiamen of the People's Republic of China was suspended. Almost all reservoirs in Kinmen County were full. Winds at Force 13 on the Beaufort scale were recorded in the Matsu Islands.
National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission is the task-force-grouped committee authorized by the law of Disaster Prevention and Protection.
An elderly man is carried from a helicopter to a high school in Chishan, in Taiwan's Kaohsiung county on August 10, 2009 after being airlifted from the southern village of Shiao Lin.
A man stands on a roof as he awaits rescue in heavy flooding in Taimali, south-eastern Taiwan's Taitung county on August 8, 2009 during Typhoon Morakot.
A hotel building leans before falling in a heavily flooded river after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county, Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. The six-story hotel collapsed and plunged into the river Sunday morning after floodwaters eroded its base - all 300 people in the hotel had been evacuated and uninjured, officials said.
A woman, taking shelter from Typhoon Morakot, rests in a temporary evacuation centre in Chiatung, in southern Taiwan's Pingtung county on August 9, 2009.
Rescuers are seen before a Taoist temple inundated in floodwaters brought by Typhoon Morakot in Chiatung, southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009.
A girl is carried out from mudslide caused by Typhoon Morakot in Chiashien, Kaohsiung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 10, 2009.
A massive landslide is seen across a mountain road in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
A storm-damaged bridge in Chiashien, southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county, seen on August 10, 2009.
A distraught woman waits for word of her missing father from Shiao Lin village, which was covered in a landslide from Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan, at a rescue landing zone on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
A railroad bridge damaged by Typhoon Morakot is seen in Taitung, eastern Taiwan August 8, 2009.
Driftwood and debris fills Fugang Harbor after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county, eastern Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009.
A man carries a baby as a family is rescued from flooding brought by Typhoon Morakot in Chiatung, Pingtung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009.
A man trapped by floods gestures at rescuers delivering food and drinking water after Typhoon Morakot hit Pingtung county, southern Taiwan August 9, 2009.
A collapsed apartment block lies on a river bed in Taimali, in southeast Taiwan's Taitung county on August 10, 2009.
Two women hold each other in a local emergency room after being rescued by helicopter from a village covered in a landslide from Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan, Monday. Aug. 10, 2009.
