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DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Taiwan confirms 543 dead, 117 missing after typhoon

More than 100 sick in typhoon-hit Taiwan village: officials
More than 100 people in a typhoon-hit village in Taiwan have fallen ill with an infectious disease, health authorities said Wednesday, ruling out concerns they were sick with swine flu. It came after the military confirmed that four soldiers involved in typhoon relief work had swine flu, two weeks after Typhoon Morakot lashed the south of the island leaving 461 people dead and nearly 200 missing. Test results confirmed that about 105 residents of Wannei village, in Pingtung county, had contracted leptospirosis, a common disease after flooding, said county health chief Kang Chi-chieh. "Leptospirosis has flu-like symptoms so that's why some villagers mistake it for swine flu," Kang said, addressing concerns among people in the affected areas that swine flu had been spreading there. The leptospirosis outbreak was now under control, Kang added, and none of the more than 100 sick with the disease were in serious danger, although about half of them had been hospitalised as a precaution. But village chief Lin Wang-hung disputed the health authorities' figures, saying around 400 people in the village of 2,000 had developed high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, common symptoms of leptospirosis. Media in Taiwan meanwhile said that at least three children have also come down with high fevers in a shelter for 300 people from Hsiaolin, a village destroyed by the typhoon in Kaohsiung county. "I am very concerned for my child... there are too many people coming in and out of the shelter every day," a woman told FTV cable news channel. President Ma Ying-jeou has called Morakot the worst-ever typhoon to strike Taiwan, saying the scale of the damage was more severe than a 1959 typhoon that killed 667 people and left around 1,000 missing. Fears of spreading disease in typhoon-battered areas came as the island's former health minister warned that swine flu could infect as much as a third of Taiwan's population and contribute to nearly 7,000 deaths. So far, there have been five swine flu-related deaths in Taiwan, according to the Centre for Disease Control. But Chen, who now works for Taiwan's top research institute Academia Sinica, said swine flu could infect 6.9 million people in the coming months, of which 0.1 percent could die. Chen said his estimate was based on government figures of 12,000 new cases last week, bringing total infections to 38,000, with the number sick with the A(H1N1) virus likely to double each week.
by Staff Writers
 Taipei (AFP) Aug 27, 2009
 Taiwan on Thursday confirmed that 543 people were killed and 117 were missing after Typhoon Morakot struck more than two weeks ago, causing the worst flooding in the island's history.

The National Fire Agency said that the latest figures included 397 confirmed deaths from the worst-hit southern village of Hsiaolin, where another 53 people were still unaccounted for.

Previously, the death toll from the typhoon stood at 461. The toll was expected to rise further.

The typhoon struck the island on August 8, bringing a record three metres (118 inches) of rain, submerging houses and streets and destroying dozens of bridges and hundreds of roads.

President Ma Ying-jeou has said the scale of damage caused by Morakot was more severe than a 1959 typhoon that killed 667 people and left around 1,000 missing.

The deadliest natural disaster in the island's history was a 7.6-magnitude quake that claimed around 2,400 lives in September 1999.

Taiwan's parliament came out of recess Thursday to approve a 120-billion-Taiwan-dollar (3.65 billion US) budget for reconstruction in the wake of Typhoon Morakot.

The figure was 20 percent higher than the cabinet's proposal after the major opposition Democratic Progressive Party demanded a special budget of 200 billion Taiwan dollars.

More than 25,000 people fled their homes after Morakot struck and 6,000 are still living in government and private temporary shelters.

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

earlier related report
 Taiwan FM offers to resign over typhoon blunder: report
 Taiwan's foreign minister has offered to resign for turning down overseas aid after Typhoon Morakot struck the island earlier this month, a report said Wednesday.

Francisco Ou verbally tendered his resignation to President Ma Ying-jeou during a routine briefing on Monday, the local China Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

The presidential office declined to comment on the report.

Ou was the fourth senior cabinet official who offered to quit amid public anger over the government's slow response to the deadly typhoon.

Cabinet Secretary General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan had incurred public wrath after angrily justifying dining with his family at a five-star hotel on August 8, the day Morakot struck, saying it was Father's Day in Taiwan and "not out of line".

Defence Minister Chen Chao-min came under fire for deploying too few troops during the initial days of the rescue operation while Ou's deputy Andrew Hsia has taken the blame for a decision, later overturned, to refuse foreign aid.

Ou and the others remain in their jobs pending an expected cabinet reshuffle next month, the report said.

The government on Tuesday confirmed that 461 people were killed while 192 were missing when the typhoon lashed the island with a record three metres (118 inches) of rain, submerging houses and streets and destroying bridges.

Morakot was the worst-ever typhoon to strike Taiwan, Ma has said, saying the scale of the damage was more severe than a 1959 typhoon that killed 667 people and left around 1,000 missing.

The deadliest natural disaster in the island's history was a 7.6-magnitude quake that claimed around 2,400 lives in September 1999.

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