This sudden and heavy downpour, whose worst feature was its steadiness, was unprecedented in the region of its concentration, which had rarely been visited by Pacific typhoons or earthquakes, although these unwelcome elemental forces frequently harass other parts of the sub-tropical island of Taiwan. The incessant rain was accompanied by continuous, frightening thunder and lightning. In nine hours 811 mm. of rain (previous record: 412 mm.) dumped itself on Changhua and its adjacent areas. By early next morning, all the streets in Changhua were inundated.
Strange as it may seem now, the people then appeared to find the experience enjoyable. They were out collecting pieces of furniture and other odds and ends floating around in waters of two to three feet deep. But before they had time to clean up their houses, the second wave of flood came. The water, overflowing from Wu or Tatu Chi, a steep river in central Taiwan, first smashed through dikes and embankments, and gathering more force with its own momentum raced ominously toward the city of 90,000 inhabitants.
What made this flood terribly destructive was the fact that it was a combination of tidewater from the sea and accumulated rains charging down from the mountains. To find oneself in this water is altogether a thing different from wading knee-deep lightheartedly. As the water rose higher and ran swifter, the people in Changhua and twelve other cities and counties scrambled for life. Those awakened from sleep dashed up to the attic and ceilings. As the water continued to mount, they broke through the roof and perched atop the house. There were cries of desperation and screams for help. Their struggle for life was a grim, tragic picture.
A young couple lost their only child when the onrushing waters swept away their house. A boy all alone was floating in a wooden box, crying for help. Minutes later, he disappeared. Farmer Yang Shen-fa was a pathetic eyewitness of the drowning of his own wife and all their six children. Their distressing cries for help keep ringing in his ears today.
In a school at Changhua, a few hundred students were getting ready for an entrance examination. They were told to stay put even as the surging waters entered the city. Panic-stricken, eight girls tried to rush home. Before they managed to scramble out of the compound, the irresistible currents carried them off. According to eyewitnesses, many more were washed away as they darted here and there for safety.
Over a thousand students and faculty members of the Christian Tunghai University were marooned on the elevated campus in the "suburb of Taichung. For more than 24 hours, they had neither food nor water.
At San Yi Village, Miaoli, a landslide left only one survivor, a two-year-old boy, of the family of local conscription officer Peng Chao-chung. And the whole family of village chief Peng Yun-shen was buried alive.
One of the most tragic scenes was witnessed near a railway signpost outside of Changhua when flood workers sighted a pair of legs sticking out of a heap of debris. As they dug out the body, that of a six-year-old boy, they found three more of two younger boys and a woman, who appeared to be about thirty and pregnant for several months. Apparently she was the mother of all three. They held each other's hand in a firm grip.
Casualties and Damages
As the flood receded, officials counted 669 dead, 852 injured, 377 missing and 248,184 homeless--victims of Taiwan's worst flood disaster since 1898. Many people say the flood was the worst in the island's whole history. According to Lin Ho-nien, magistrate of Taichung Hsien, eighty years ago on the same day, a similar but less serious calamity occurred in the same area and left tens of thousands of people without a home.
The enormous extent of the flood is hard to imagine until one takes a personal look at the devastations wrought by the water. This writer went to the stricken areas for an on-the-spot survey eight days after the deluge. The tremendous impact of the flood and the wasteland found in its wake sadly greeted the eye wherever it turned. The 600-meter Tatu railway bridge, a vital link in the north-south trunk line, was chopped off at both ends, with the tracks curled up and only its body left intact. A large chunk of the concrete bridge, about 25 feet long, was sent to a sandy river bottom hundreds of feet away from its original site.
The once smooth road leading from Taichung to the scenic Chung Hsing Village, seat of the Taiwan Provincial Government, was torn apart at four or five points. In some cases, both the surface and the road base were literally shoved away. The road, although it was said to be less seriously damaged than the main highway, was actually beyond recognition.
In other areas, roads shifted courses. Large tracts of farmland were covered with a thick layer of silt and sand deposited by the muddy water from Tatu Chi or carried thither by the tidewater from the sea. Rice fields were turned into creeks over which Baily bridges were quickly put up by soldiers for emergency use. Houses built with mud and stone disintegrated or simply vanished. In all, more than 47,000 residential buildings, large and small, were damaged or destroyed.
Total property damage was estimated at over NT$3.7 billion (US$103 million). According to the Cabinet Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation, agriculture suffered the greatest losses, which amounted to approximately 49% of the total damage; transportation and tele-communications, 11%; public health facilities, 0.34%; power, sugar and other industries, 3.6%; housing, schools, personal properties and other supplies, 36.06%.
Emergency Relief and Rescue
The damages and casualties would have been greater if organized measures of prevention had not been adopted as soon as the seriousness of the flood situation was understood and gauged by the proper quarters. Adequate action for emergency rescue and mass relief operations were promptly under-taken by the government. And extensive assistance came from the United States Seventh Fleet and American military and civilian organizations in Taiwan.
The entire nation moved to fight the flood and alleviate its consequences. President Chiang Kai-shek quickly ordered the armed forces to go to the assistance in every possible way of the civilian rescue and relief missions. The cabinet of Premier Chen Cheng, after its first emergency session, ordered the national treasury to set aside NT$20 million for immediate relief while studies were being made on the ways and means of further appropriations. Relief committees swung into action in every city and town. On August 11, a national relief committee was formed to coordinate civilian efforts in the relief work. It launched a door-to-door drive to raise money and relief items for the flood victims. Newspapers and radio stations made urgent appeals for help to the suffering. Local religious bodies naturally extended their ever-ready helping hand. Free medical care was offered by private doctors and nurses.
The air force sent out helicopters to save stranded or isolated people, and transports to move food, medical and other necessary supplies to flood-stricken localities. Air force planes were also ordered to keep the air traffic open in the first few days following the deluge when land transportation was yet to be restored. Naval vessels were also dispatched to the scene of disaster to do whatever they could. The army ordered all local garrison forces to give all possible manners of assistance. The entire police force in the flooded areas joined in the battle against the fatal waters. Army engineers were called out to assist making emergency repairs to damaged roads and bridges.
Heroic episodes and the undaunted, self-sacrificing spirit shown by the military and police personnel in saving thousands of lives and in helping the ravaged people in various manners made epic-like stories too numerous to depict one by one in an article like this. Many of them lost their own lives or their own families while they were saving others. And many of the civilians themselves showed marvelous courage and performed heroic acts and not a few forgot their own safety in their persistence to help their neighbors.
In Chiayi County, one of the hardest hit areas in the south, nearly 20 villages were inundated. About 5,000 men, women and children were marooned on their rooftops, hoping only that the heavy rains would soon stop and the waters recede. Next morning as they were about to give up hope, more than a dozen military life boats showed up and sailed toward them. The boats belonged to an army engineering unit stationed in Chiayi. On that day alone, more than 2,000 people were brought to safety.
In Taichung, six army officers, away from their families to help some 3,000 people on the night of August 8, returned next morning only to find their own houses wrecked and their loved ones—22 in all—perished in the water.
In Changhua, another army officer left his wife and children on the ceiling when he went to help others in trouble. He, too, returned to find his family gone.
A policeman in Taya, Taichung County, told his 17 children "take care of yourselves!" and rushed to help 30 men, women and children to climb on a tree which saved them from the raging waters. In Changhua alone, more than 8,000 people were saved by the police.
In Taichung where many people were trapped on rooftops and high buildings, some 50 persons were saved by three water buffaloes by clinging to their tails as the animals made trips to bring them out.
Tsai Yung-ting, a clerk in the coastal village of Houlung, awoke at 2 a.m. to find the water pouring into the sleeping town from the sea. In half an hour, he woke up everybody in the 100-man village to seek refuge. When he returned to his home, the torrents were already waist hish. His house was beginning to collapse and his wife lost contact with him. Tsai himself and 29 others died that night. His body and two dead children were found under a fallen beam the next day.
The few stories above are typical of the heroism and courage and unselfishness generously demonstrated by stricken people and their rescuers throughout the extensively affected region. These epic incidents, when pieced together, show the unity and the spirit of self-sacrifice of the Chinese people in time of disaster. The floods that brought physical disasters served to strengthen the spiritual unity and brotherly relations between the people on Taiwan.
Many news commentators are moved by the comradely relations between the army and the people as brought out by the floods and believe that it would prove to be a great asset in the eventual recovery of the Chinese mainland from Communist domination. They feel that with the same attitude the soldiers had shown to the people during the flood disaster, the Chinese army can be expected to win over the teeming masses on the mainland once it makes a landing there.
As the Chinese were helping themselves, timely and generous aid also came from their foreign friends—American government agencies, church organizations, U.S. military and civilian personnel in Taiwan and the diplomatic corps in Taipei.
Messages of sympathy and monetary donations were also received from foreign chiefs of state, among them are President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, President Carlos P. Garcia of the Philippines, President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam, President Syngman Rhee of Korea, President Fuad Chehab of Lebanon, King Hussein of Jordan and the Shah of Iran.
The U.S. Mutual Security Mission to China, upon receiving news of the flood, immediately ordered the release of its surplus agricultural commodities which were in storage in Taiwan. At the same time, it appropriated NT$10,000,000 from the United States aid counterpart fund for emergency relief.
On August 10, a Sino-American joint committee was organized to coordinate United States aid with the relief and rehabilitation program of the Chinese government. The committee is composed of representatives from the U.S. Mutual Security Mission, Council for United States Aid under the Chinese cabinet and the Taiwan Provincial Government.
Four days later, the committee made another appropriation of NT$9,000,000 for emergency repair of irrigation systems and purchase of seed, seedlings and farm machinery for restoring agriculture production.
The World Church Service, the Catholic Relief Association and other religious groups donated hundreds of tons of food supplies—flour, corn meal, milk powder and rice—and clothing and other useful things needed by the flood victims. Chinese and American military organizations provided means of transportation to bring these relief items to the refugees.
All the money and relief goods were distributed through the Taiwan Provincial Government which bore the main burden of the relief work. In addition to American aid appropriations and contributions from other sources, the Provincial Government took out from its own coffer more than NT$65,000,000 for flood relief and emergency repair of damaged communications systems. As of September 2, a total of NT$161,000,000 were expended since the disaster occurred.
The United States Seventh Fleet and American military organizations in Taiwan were particularly helpful in the relief work. Vice Admiral Roland N. Smoot, Commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command, upon learning the disaster, offered the services of American military personnel on Taiwan to help out the refugees. The first thing he did was to dispatch five helicopters to the flooded areas to help in rescue and relief missions.
In the meantime, he asked for additional help from Vice Admiral Frederick N. Kivette, Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, who ordered the giant aircraft carrier, the USS Thetis Bay, to speed to central Taiwan on a mercy mission dubbed "Operation Hunger." The 10,000-ton assault ship carried with it 13 large marine helicopters which greatly reinforced the Sino-American joint airlift of hundreds of tons of badly-needed food supplies to people in the flood-ravaged areas.
Human interest stories were also recorded from the USS Thetis Bay. On the day it dropped its anchor off the Taiwan west coast, the ship almost emptied its food and medical supplies for use in the relief of flood victims who suffered from shortage of rice in the disaster area. The officers and enlisted men on the USS Thetis Bay were on leave in Hongkong when they were summoned to Taiwan.
"They didn't have any bread for supper the other (first) day," said an American missionary assigned to work with the marines in the airlift of food supplies. A medical officer from the aircraft carrier admitted that there were only aspirins and bandages left on the ship.
A 39-man medical team also came ashore to join the Chinese medical personnel in giving emergency treatment to the flood victims. They also helped in the inoculation of some 150,000 people to protect them against possible outbreak of epidemics in the flood-ravaged areas.
In the first few days following the flood invasion, no food was available in the stricken areas. All means of cooking were washed away. For a whole week, the American marines manning the big "whirlybirds" worked almost round the clock in cooperation with the Chinese Air Force in airlifting food supplies to thousands upon thousands of flood refugees. They brought in rice, flour, powder milk and even wood for cooking.
The bakers on board the USS Thetis Bay were kept equally busy. In one single day, they baked 2,000 pounds of bread for distribution among the victims of the floods. In addition, tons of meat, juices, canned fruits and vegetables were donated by the Thetis Bay.
A large number of American missionaries, representing the church organizations which had contributed hundreds of tons of food supplies, also worked tirelessly under tough conditions to help supervise the loading and unloading of food.
Local government officials and people were deeply touched by the selfless spirit shown by the American military and civilian personnel taking part in the relief operations. Magistrate Chen Hsi-chin of Changhua said: "We cannot find enough words to express our gratitude for their (American) help. It looks as though their own people had been suffering."
Even the American missionaries working together with the marines from the USS Thetis Bay were moved by the indefatigable and superb performance of the American leathernecks. A Catholic missionary said: "I take my hat off to the American marines. They are doing a tremendous job. They just don't know when to stop. They have been bringing in all kinds of food-flour, milk powder, corn meal, rice and other things the people need."
As for the Americans themselves, they thought it was their job to help the Chinese in the disaster. Major Dave Steward of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who was sent by the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command to coordinate the Sino-American joint efforts in the relief operations, said: "This is part of our job I think if the conditions were reversed, the Chinese would do exactly the same thing for us."
Rehabilitation Begins
As soon as the extent of damages was known, the most challenging guest ion the Chinese Government faced was: Does it have the ability to rebuild Taiwan from the ravages of the worst flood disaster in 62 years? To this question, Vice President and Premier Chen Cheng, at a press conference on August 20, replied: "It first depends on whether the Government has the determination. I can assure you that the Government does have the determination and it believes it also has the capabilities to do the job."
Earlier, Governor Chow Chih-jou of Taiwan, announcing the completion of emergency relief operations and the beginning of a massive rehabilitation plan, said: "Disaster is genuine disaster only to a nation which has no confidence, no ambition and which does not go into action. On the other hand, disaster often turns out to be the chance of rejuvenation for a nation with confidence, ambition and which goes into action."
Setting forth the objective of rehabilitation, the Governor said: "Our reconstruction is not aimed at restoring what used to be but at constructing what should be the new. We should only restore the old looks but must build according to new scales."
As the chiefs of the Central and Provincial Governments were making these statements, the rehabilitation work was already underway. It was divided into two major phases: emergency repair and reconstruction, calling for a total of NT $2,259,600,000. The first phase embracing communications, agriculture and irrigation, was completed within only two weeks after the flood attack, thanks to the help of the armed forces.
The Chinese military was mainly responsible for the maintenance in the first several days following the Hoods, and later the quick restoration, of highway and railway communications. During the first week when all overland transportation were out, the Chinese Air Force sent a large number of transports, to help keep the north-south air traffic open. Giant C129 Flying Boxcars turned over to China by the United States during the height of the Kinmen crisis last fall were used to fly passengers between the northern and southern parts of the island. The Chinese Navy assigned a 10,000-ton transport ship and two landing craft to help carry supplies from Keelung to Kaohsiung, the two major port cities in northern and southern Taiwan.
The Army is credited for having brought land communications to an early resumption. Well-trained and able bodied men from the army engineering corps, with the help of bulldozers, trucks and other equipment, worked day and night under all conditions to erect scores of Baily bridges on damaged high ways and railways to help facilitate traffic on land. They could put up a 300-meter Baily bridge in two hours. Without the army engineering corps, the immediate restoration of land communications would not have been possible.
Highway was the first to reopen. Except only one section between Taichung and Changhua where a 600-meter railway bridge was badly damaged, north-south railway traffic was resumed on August 25. Through train service has resumed before mid-September.
Reclamation of farmland got underway as soon as the water receded. Of the 70,000 hectares of farmland inundated, about 10,000 hectares can be salvaged for plantation or rice and another 10,000 hectares may be converted for plantation of water melons, peanut, etc. About 25,000 hectares will have been replanted with rice seedlings by the end of September. Nearly 40,000 hectares are listed as totally lost. The damage done to farm crops and land was heavy but not irreparable. The devastating floods struck the island barely after the second crops of the year were harvested and rice seedlings were just planted for the third season. As season goes, it would not be too late if the replanting could be done immediately after the silt, sand and rocks were cleaned out. The Government realizes that further loss in agriculture would be inevitable if farm production is not restored in time.
Water conservancy, vital to agricultural production, was also a project high on the emergency repair list. All damaged irrigation systems were restored to temporary operation on August 25 to feed some 100,000 hectares of rice fields. Repair of damaged dikes and rives embankments was completed before the end of August, thanks to the military. This had to be done quickly or more floods may occur in the current monsoon and typhoon season.
The rehabilitation work has now entered into the long-range reconstruction phase. At the time of this writing, a master reconstruction plan was being finalized and forwarded to the Central Government for approval.
The plan and handle the overall relief and rehabilitation program, a special cabinet working group, as has been mentioned earlier, was created on August 20. The Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation is headed by Vice President and Premier Chen Cheng. It consists of three sub-committees, namely, manpower, material supplies and finance, chairmaned respectively by Admiral Liang Hsu-chao, Deputy Defense Minister; Yang Chi-tseng, Minister of Economic Affairs; and C.K. Yen, Minister of Finance.
The master reconstruction plan as unfolded by Governor Chow covers such major phases as communications, water conservancy, agriculture, industry, housing, public works, education, public health, etc. The program, divided into three stages of four months each, is scheduled to be completed in one year beginning from September, 1959. Governor Chow has designated the period from September 1959 to August 1960 as the "year of reconstruction." Communications, water conservancy and development of marine production are given top priority.
Starting from September, agricultural production is slated to be restored to its pre-flood capacity within one year. It is estimated that overall rural rehabilitation would cost a total of NT$l,080,365,000, including NT$127,374,000 for emergency use.
Reconstruction of communications systems, water conservancy and relevant public works is scheduled to be completed before the 1960 monsoon and flood season which starts usually in May. It would require a total of NT$338,976,200 to rebuild the island's communications systems from the ravages of the latest flood.
On water conservancy, it is to be noted that the existing levees and embankments along the major rivers in Taiwan were designed to withstand the impact of a maximum rainfall of 410 millimeters. On August 7, an all-time high of over 1,000 mm. rainfall was registered. To raise the dikes by one foot or so, it is estimated that some NT$1 billion would be needed.
Repair of damaged houses and construction of new ones for flood victims are expected to be finished before next August. As has been reported earlier, more than 47,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed. The project calls for a total of NT$565,371,000, of which one half will be provided by the Government in the form of long-term and low-interest loans. The other half is to be raised by the flood victims themselves.
According to Fu Yun, Provincial Com missioner for Social Affairs, the housing project will be carried out in several phases. The first phase calls for the construction of about 3,400 houses and repair of 10,000 damaged ones, with work on the erection of 700 model houses in some of the hardest-hit areas already underway. These model houses are designed to resist the impact of typhoons, earthquakes and floods. Their pattern will be followed in the construction and rebuilding of houses for flood victims.
Commissioner Fu estimated that construction and repair of 47,000 houses would cost a total of NT$610,232,000, with an initial layout of NT$120,000,000.
According to Governor Chow, the one-year reconstruction program would require NT$1,984,600,000 and more than 10,000,000 worker-days from the army engineering corps to complete. Plus the sum of NT$275,000,000 for emergency purposes, the total rehabilitation cost would run as high as NT$2,259,600,000.
Now the all-important question arises: where is the money going to come from? In answer to this question, Vice President and Premier Chen said: "The Government can find ways and means to raise it." In trying to obtain money for the rehabilitation work, the Vice President-Premier laid down two principles: to compensate the losses through nation-wide austerity and to meet the shortage of fund through the use of available manpower.
Ten days after these principles were laid down President Chiang Kai-shek issued a presidential decree, in which for the first time in China's constitutional history a president empowered his cabinet to:
1. Make necessary adjustments to, and revisions of, existing tax laws, budgets of governments of all levels and laws of accounting and auditing;
2. Take necessary steps to restrict the people's consumption in order to create savings and financial resources for the reconstruction of the flood-damaged areas;
3. Impose a temporary collection of sur-taxes on the following categories: 15% for slaughter tax, 40% for land tax, 30% for house tax, 30% for commodity tax, NT$1-NT$2 for each movie ticket, 30% for banquet tax, 36% for power rates, 30% for telecommunication rates, 33% for railway and highway fares, 33% for taxi and NT$5,000-NT$10,000 for every private and government-owned sedan; The collection of these surtaxes, officially termed "Flood Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Levy," varies from four to 10 months;
4. Allocate and disburse the funds raised through the collection of the surtaxes; and
5. Use the National General Mobilization Law, and other relevant laws, or take further emergency measures as may be necessary to requisition land, labor and material supplies and effect financial and economic measures in dealing with the flood disaster.
As indicated above, the emergency presidential order, issued in accordance with the "Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Crisis" in the Chinese Constitution, is aimed solely at raising fund for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-ravaged central and southern Taiwan. In is also in keeping with the government policy to rebuild the flood-damaged areas with "our own resources."
The Constitutional temporary provisions, adopted by the National Assembly on April 18, 1948, give the President special powers to "take emergency measures .... to cope with any serious financial or economic crisis" during the period of national crisis without being subject to normal restrictions.
Thus, Vice President and Premier Chen has been given a free hand in using his wisdom and resourcefulness to open up new financial revenues for use in the rehabilitation program.
There are at present at least four reliable sources from which the Government will be able to raise something in the neighborhood of NT$1.5 billion. Here is the breakdown:
1. Four to 10 months of levying of sur-taxes……………………. NT$600,000,000
2. Curtailment of government budget ............................ NT$200,000,000
3. Increase in prices of cigarettes on wine of the
Monopoly Bureau and fuel………….................................... NT$300,000,000
4. Issuance of savings bond…....................................... NT$400,000,000
The proposed savings bond, which is still tinder government consideration, is divided into two categories of Classes A and B. Class A, which is expected to bring the Government NT $300,000,000, will be tax free and bears an annual interest rate of 1.6%. Class B, aimed at netting NT$100,000,000, will carry a lottery bonus but no interest.
In addition to the sources listed above, appropriations which have been or to be made from United States aid counterpart fund amount to some NT$90,000,000.
It is presumed that the Chinese Government can provide all the necessary manpower and part of the material supplies for the reconstruction job. The cabinet subcommittee on manpower has already mapped out an initial plan calling for the use of 100,000 workers, including militia, civil defense corps and the army engineering corps. According to Vice President-Premier Chen, the job would normally require at least NT $700,000,000, an amount which now can be saved.
Governor Chow has estimated the reconstruction cost at NT$1,984,600,000 in addition to the NT$275,000,000 for emergency repair. He said that the "indirect losses" suffered by the Government as a result of exemption from, and reduction of, taxes in the flood stricken areas amount to NT$413,700,000. He is of the opinion that the sum total of these three figures—NT$1,984,600, NT $413,7000,000—should be the basis for raising fund for the long-range reconstruction program. If this sum total—NT$2,673,000,000—is to be used as the basic estimate, as Governor Chow has suggested, it means that the Government is still short of more than NT$1 billion to cover the bill. Where will this money come from? Will the Chinese Government seek United States aid?
On this score, Vice President and Premier Chen has made it clear that the Chinese Government "will not ask for American aid until we have exhausted our own means." He asked: "How can we ask others to help up when we ourselves are doing nothing?"
Later, the cabinet chief confirmed press reports that the Chinese Government has asked the United States for US$30,000,000 (about NT$1.2 billion) to help meet the need. At the time of this writing, negotiations were still going on between Taipei and Washington and it was not known whether the requested aid would be forthcoming. Nevertheless, with the help they received from the Americans during the emergency relief period, the Chinese are rather confident that they can look to Washington for additional aid in the long-range rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-torn Taiwan.
There is an age-old Chinese saying which goes: "Difficulties only help a nation thrive." Another says: "God helps those who help themselves." The recent flood disaster, serious as it was, was only one of the many hardships the Chinese people have gone through in their long history. It was also a crucial test for the Chinese Government on Taiwan whether it was capable of handling a major crisis, even though it was caught unprepared by the flash floods. As proven in the first few weeks following the deluge, the Chinese Government and people have successfully stood the trial and both have come out with flying colors. With the same spirit and faith as shown in the relief operations and emergency repair work, and with continued support from their American ally, the free Chinese can certainly rebuild flood-ravaged Taiwan into an even more prosperous and stronger bulwark against the forces of evil in Asia.