TAIPEI: A storm survivor, stranded for six days in the eastern county of Taitung, says some 1,000 refugees who survived a killer mudslide in the mountainous area are on the verge of starvation. In an email sent yesterday the woman said all available food, even forage, has been consumed.

"Even greens and taros gathered in the wild have been consumed," said Lin Feng-shu, an elementary school teacher in Taitung county's Jinfong township. Lin got the email out yesterday after Taiwan Power Co and Chunghwa Telecom restored Internet services, which had been disrupted by typhoon Morakot.

"Please help us quickly," the letter stated. According to Lin, vast areas of Jinfong township - a mountainous area that is traditionally home to aborigines - have been without drinking water or electricity for six days. Roads have been cut by landslides.

Relief supplies, including bottled water, canned foods, instant noodles, powdered milk and basic daily necessities, are urgently needed, the school teacher said.

As of yesterday morning, many residents in tribal communities of Taitung county's southern Dawu township remained cut off from the outside world and were without access to basic supplies.

Electricity was restored in some places in Dawu, but roads were still blocked and foods and other essential supplies cannot get through.

Residents are trying to clean up their homes with their bare hands and have nothing to eat, according to a staff member of a local government office.

In the mountainous Lidao township - a stop on the Southern Cross-Island Highway - residents live in constant fear of rockfalls precipitated by the record high rainfall set off by Morakot, according to Wang Hsi-chun, an elementary school teacher based in Lidao.

"The Lidao Reservoir could break at any minute as the landslides continue," Wang said in an email.

Typhoon Morakot deluged parts of Taiwan with massive volumes of rain between August 7-9 - 2,500 mm in the southernmost Pingtung county. The torrent brought the worst flooding seen in Taiwan in half a century.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 08/14/2009 page2)