Taiwan suffered their worst flood in 50 years after being struck by Typhoon Morakot last week; at least 65 are confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing.
Kaohsiung County was the worst hit area; a deadly mudslide buried Hsiaolin village and nearby neighbourhood, with over 600 villagers feared dead.
Philippines and China were also affected by the typhoon; while Japan hit by tropical storm Etau at the same period. Death toll includes 23 in the Philippines, 13 in Japan and six in China [according to Guardian]
Morakot hit Taiwan late night on August 7 and caused 14+ hours of havoc before leaving for China; but heavy rain continued to pour, which caused massive flood (and landslide, mudflow etc.) particularly in southern Taiwan.
Taiwanese are no strangers to typhoon; but rescue effort appeared to be short-handed because of the unexpected scale of devastation. Hope that more survivors could be rescued, God bless.
It has been more than three weeks since the Chinese earthquake. The Chinese government has been doing well with the rescue and relief effort, and the international community (including some of the readers here) have shown their love and support for the victims.
Sharing here a few pictures of the victims catching back to their normal life…
The kid is so cute
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Sharon Stone wondered if the earthquake that hit Sichuan is karma during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival…
Update – Stone apologised on May 28.
Chinese bloggers are fuming with debates on whether some natural phenomenons were showing signs that an earthquake was going to strike China on May 12.
One of the most talk-about phenomenons is the toad migrations which were spotted at a few places across China… I have shared one of the toad migration stories earlier before I knew about the quake.
While the story I shared happened in Jiangsu, a few thousand kilometres away from the quake zone… a similar mass migration also happened at a village in Mianzhu on May 10, one of the places that are affected by the earthquake.
Did the toads sense something coming, or was it merely coincidence and common natural behaviour like some scientists claimed? I am not sure… there are plenty of rooms for speculations obviously.
The freaky thing is that some of the villagers actually expressed their concerns that the toad migration might be an omen that something disastrous might be coming… unfortunately their concerns came true.
The death toll of the quake has risen to 34,000 at the moment. Again, do help in whatever way you can… every bit counts.
An earthquake measuring 7.8 on Richter scale struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday (May 12) at 2.28pm Beijing time.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (with the megaphone) is at the disaster zone to coordinate the rescue and relief effort (Image by
Xinhuanet)
The death toll is 11921 at the time of writing, and the number is expected to rise as rescue missions are being carried on. The worst hit area is the Beichuan county, about 160 kilometres northeast of the quake epicentre in Wenchuan.
This is the worst earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake which claimed around 250,000 lives.
The satellite image of Myanmar’s Hainggyi Island shows the devastating effect of Cyclone Nargis which hit the country on May 2. The top image was taken in late 2004 while the bottom image on May 5, 2008.
Hainggyi Island before and after the Cyclone Nargis (Image via
Sohu)
It’s estimated that 60,000-100,000 (different sources) people have lost their lives (or missing) while 1.5 million people are affected by this natural hazard. To make it worse the Myanmar’s military rulers are disrupting cyclone relief efforts and trying to turn it into a propaganda campaign.
Regardless, do try to help if possible… every bit of donation counts.
