Taiwan Today

Amidst reports that more than 600 people may have been buried alive in a mudslide in Xiaolin Village, Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan, a special forces team arrived at the scene and found 39 villagers alive Aug. 10. The rescued were subsequently transported by helicopters to safety. A total of 438 families with 1,339 people have their official domicile in Xiaolin Village, according to public records. The young usually leave the village in search of work, but because Aug. 8 was Father’s Day, many had returned home. Officials thus are not sure how many people were in the village when the landslide occurred 6:10 a.m. Aug. 9. Preliminary estimates put the number at 600. It is also not clear how many may have survived the landslide. Some reports suggest that when the landslide occurred, many villagers, perhaps more than 100, were hiding in a tunnel, in which they may have been able to survive the onslaught. Some family members have said they received cell phone calls from the relatives asking for help. The special forces arrived Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. by helicopter, shortly after the strong rains and winds which had prevented them from reaching the village had subsided. Some villagers, as soon as they saw the helicopters, ran out to greet and hug their rescuers. The special forces soon found other surviving villagers, and radioed for more helicopter flights to take them to safety. Altogether eight helicopters took 39 people to safety, including two from the Dajin Village nearby. At 6 p.m. Aug. 10 an additional force was dispatched. When the helicopters arrived, the torrential waters prevented safe landings, and the soldiers had to descend by rope, to conduct their search and rescue operations in the dark. The command center of the special forces said the soldiers are a well-trained group, capable of surviving in extreme conditions. As soon as a secure landing site can be fashioned, an additional 500 soldiers will be dispatched, the center said.