A government official in Taiwan on Wednesday confirmed that no fewer 14 people lost their lives when a decades-old lake barrier burst in Taiwan, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rain.
The lake in eastern Hualien county — formed by a series of landslides that created a natural dam wall — burst Tuesday, washing away a bridge and sweeping into a town with a trail of thick sludge and mud.
Hsu Cheng-hsiung, 55, a neighbourhood leader of Kuang Fu township, who confirmed the sad development to AFP, said, “It was like a volcano erupting…. the muddy floodwaters came roaring straight into the first floor of my house,”, told AFP.
A Hualien County Government press official, Lee Kuan-ting, also disclosed that at least14 people were killed and 18 were injured
Premier Cho Jung-tai , who visited the area on Wednesday, pledging to assist those affected, said, “As for the 14 people who lost their lives, we must find out why evacuation orders were not carried out in the affected area, leading to such a tragedy. We still have more than a hundred people missing, and this is our greatest concern right now.”
According to the National Fire Agency, at least 152 people are missing in Hualien and elsewhere in Taiwan.
A resident, Yen Shau, 31, told AFP that, “It was a disaster movie,” adding that an hour before the lake burst, many people were still at the local supermarket and grocery store.
“Within minutes, the water had risen to halfway up the first floor,” he said, just as he added that he couldn’t sleep Tuesday night for fear of another deluge from the lake, and on Wednesday, he was shovelling mud from his home.
“The mud was just too deep, too deep to dig out,” he added.
Footage released by the fire agency showed flooded streets, half-submerged cars and uprooted trees.
