The Xiaolin Village Memorial Park was inaugurated in Kaohsiung City Jan. 15, in commemoration of the 462 Xiaolin villagers who died in a mudslide caused by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
“The park is launched not only to remember the victims, but also to remind us all to be mindful of the dangers of natural disasters,” Lin Join-sane, CEO of the Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council, said at the opening ceremony.
In the park stands a monument with an inscription by ROC President Ma Ying-jeou reading, “After the storm, let us embrace sunlight.”
These words are an encouragement to the villagers to stand up firm and remain persistent and persevering as they move toward a brighter future, Lin said.
Also present at the inaugural ceremony was Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu. “The pain caused by Typhoon Morakot is hard to forget,” Chen said. “It reminds us that prevention is more important that disaster relief.”
Kaohsiung City will work closely with the central government and private sector to prevent similar disasters from ever occurring again, Chen said.
Typhoon Morakot is one of the deadliest storms to strike Taiwan in the last century, bringing a record 2,500 millimeters of rain in three days and claiming 700 lives, with the vast majority of the deaths occurring in Xiaolin Village, when it was buried in the middle of the night under a landslide triggered by the heavy rainfall.
Situated south of the original Xiaolin Village, the memorial park measures 1.7 hectares and includes an ancestral hall, a bridge, a memorial square, a 9-meter high monument, and a platform overlooking the village.
In addition, 181 Formosan cherry saplings were planted in the park, with each tree representing a deceased family. It is hoped that when the season of the cherry blossom comes, the flowers can take away the villagers’ pain and bring hope and strength to them, according to the reconstruction council. (HZW)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw