The toll of Typhoon Morakot

In reply to an email...

On Monday 10 August 2009 13:26:57 you wrote:
> Wow. What a mess.

As time passes, the true extent of the damages becomes apparent. Officially, there are now over 100 deads, 60 missings, but the toll could be much higher by hundreds because entire villages in mountainous areas are still unaccounted for.

Entire villages have been wiped out by mud floods. During the typhoon, people were driving in the dark and plunged to their death because they hadn't noticed the bridge ahead of them had collapsed. Numerous bridges have thus completely collapsed, and roads disappeared. One rescue helicopter finally crashed after having done one rescue trip too many, killing its passengers... Satellite pictures show that a small 10m wide stream has now a 800m wide river bed.

What a mess indeed.

See:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/

This particular article strikes a nerve, both about the media exploitation of the disaster, and the real causes of the extensive damage:
MORAKOT: THE AFTERMATH: Media must look at causes behind flooding: analysts.

How much of this mess could have been prevented with a more sustainable kind of development, more respectful of nature? It is for a reason that the river beds in Taiwan are all naturally very large. This is one of the most striking features of Taiwan's geography... Just look at one of the earliest maps of Taiwan, and that's the first thing you'll notice.

Check the full size to see better the details of this map:

(source: taipics, with thanks.)

The arrows point to a river that was around 10m wide before the typhoon and 800 after:

Photo: Reuters.

(check attachments for full size)