TAIPEI: Taiwan has released the latest official toll of human loss, suffered under the onslaught of Typhoon Morakot: 461 people were killed while 192 were still listed as missing more than two weeks after the storm. The toll was expected to rise, with around 60 bodies and/or body parts yet to be identified.

The latest figures included 318 confirmed deaths from the worst-hit southern village of Hsiaolin, where 106 others were still unaccounted for, the "National Fire Agency" said.

Hope of finding more bodies is fading. Mud in Hsiaolin is three to four stories deep. Many families have given up all hope and now have listed unaccounted relatives among the dead.

Meanwhile, the reconstruction efforts were complicated by an outbreak of suspected swine flu infections in the flooded area.

Hundreds of civilians in the township of Chiatung had developed temperatures.

Taiwanese authorities scrambled to disinfect villages yesterday that were flooded in the typhoon.

"Mud and garbage have been cleaned, but we fear many pigs and other animals' bodies are still buried under the logs flowing down from Kaoping River from mountains upstream," said Hung Li-yun, a Wandan Town official.

Hung said authorities began spraying the area with disinfectants soon after the typhoon hit, and the effort has continued since then to prevent flood-related epidemics.

More than 25,000 people fled their homes because of the typhoon.

While roads are gradually being repaired and some people have returned home, about 6,000 are still living in official and private temporary shelters.

Taiwan's Red Cross Society said it would build up to 1,600 houses within two years for some of the thousands of people left homeless.

The plan is part of a massive reconstruction effort in Taiwan's devastated south. The drive to rebuild has prompted criticism by indigenous groups who may be forced to leave their ancestral homelands in remote mountain areas.

However, some potential recipients are uneasy about the plans, Hung Ju-hsuan, a Red Cross Society worker, told AFP.

"As aborigines have a deep attachment to their land, they were divided on the prospect of their new homes," she said.

She said some were refusing to leave their villages despite the devastation caused by Morakot and warnings that such traditional sites are unsuitable for habitation.

In addition to permanent housing, the Red Cross Society and 60 other civilian groups also plan to assemble 1,800 pre-fabricated houses for those in need within two months.

Agencies

(HK Edition 08/26/2009 page2)