TAIPEI: Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin yesterday urged principals of 150 elementary schools to help accommodate school children displaced by Typhoon Morakot.

At a meeting with the principals, Hau exhorted them to help school children from southern Taiwan, since many lost their homes and will be unable to attend classes in their home areas when the new semester begins.

Hau also asked the principals to help rebuild schools destroyed or damaged by landslides and flooding during the typhoon.

Wu Ching-shan, director of the Taipei City Education Department, presented a detailed plan for Taipei schools to help those in the disaster areas.

Wu said public elementary schools in Taipei will offer 3,000 places for students from areas affected by the storm.

He noted that the Education Department last week offered to help five elementary schools and one junior high school in one of the hardest hit areas, Linbian township in the southernmost county of Pingtung.

"Our aid will be arriving there before the new semester begins on September 1," Wu said.

According to official tallies, 1,282 schools in central and southern Taiwan were demolished or damaged by Typhoon Morakot, which wrought devastating landslides and the worst flooding Taiwan has seen in half a century between August 7 and 9.

Of the total, 31 elementary schools in remote mountain villages were leveled or covered in mud and debris, making it impossible for children to return for the new semester.

More than 10,000 university and college students have volunteered to help clean up and restore damaged elementary and junior high schools, according to the government.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 08/25/2009 page2)