As of Tuesday, official figures on known damage caused by the typhoon were 127 deaths, 307 missing and 45 injured, as well as economic losses of about $37.1 million. The actual figures are believed to be much higher. As many as 600 people may have died in the island's most serious natural calamity for 200 years, according to Taiwan media.

Nearly 500 residents of Siaolin Village and around 30 of Hsinfa Village in southern Taiwan are believed to have been buried by landslides caused by the typhoon. They have not been counted in the official figures.

The Taiwanese public has criticized the government for imprecise forecasts of the strength of the typhoon and the areas it would hit. They also complained of long delays in rescue efforts and uncaring attitudes toward victims in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially instructed Taiwan's embassies to refuse offers of foreign aid. Responsibility has fallen on MOFA Deputy Minister Andrew Li-Yan Hsia, who claimed he forgot to add the word "temporarily" to the notice he sent out. On Tuesday, Hsia offered to resign.

The typhoon brought some 102 inches of rain, exceeding the island's average annual rainfall and causing huge floods and landslides. Yet the government waited nearly a week before announcing it would welcome foreign aid. By then the 72-hour window of opportunity for rescuing victims had long passed.

President Ma Ying-jeou and key Cabinet members also infuriated the public with their responses to the disaster. Ma has been heavily criticized for failing to mobilize Taiwan's armed forces promptly. Without instructions from Ma, the army sent only 740 soldiers on rescue missions to the stricken areas on the first day, Aug. 8.

Ma was attending a friend's wedding on Aug. 7 while Morakot was approaching. He waited until Monday -- three days after the typhoon hit -- to call a special national security meeting to mobilize troops and organize rescue and relief efforts in the badly stricken southern counties of Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Taitung and Chiayi.

Liu Chao-shiuan, head of Ma's Cabinet, was criticized for going to have his hair dyed and chatting in a lighthearted way at the barbershop on Aug. 11, while rescue efforts were at their height.

Ma also appeared insensitive to the plight of victims when, in an initial comment after the disaster, he seemed to criticize villagers who lost their lives by "insisting on staying rather than evacuating."

"Ma Ying-jeou is obviously inferior to (China's Premier) Wen Jiabao," said Sisy Wen-Chien Chen, a media critic and former politician, comparing Ma's belated response to Wen's immediate action following the earthquake that struck mainland China's Sichuan province last year.

Other Taiwan commentators compared Ma unfavorably with his predecessors, Chen Shui-bian and Lee Teng-Hui. Lee was highly praised for his immediate and effective response to a major earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999.

Ma won the 2008 election largely because he was seen as free of corruption, unlike his predecessor Chen, who is now facing corruption charges. But many Taiwanese netizens now say that an incompetent president could be worse than a corrupt one. Some are demanding the resignation of Ma and his Cabinet.

Ma tried to repair the damage by offering an official apology at a news conference on Tuesday. He announced that a national disaster prevention and relief agency would be set up. The army would also shift its focus with troops given extensive training in disaster response.

Taiwan's military has focused for 60 years on preparing to fight China's PLA. In his news conference Ma said that Taiwan's enemy was no longer necessarily the people across the Taiwan Strait -- it could be nature. He pledged that the army would be better prepared.

China's army faced a similar challenge following the Sichuan earthquake last year. The PLA was highly praised in state media, although its lack of training for relief work was apparent to experts.

It is unclear whether Ma's efforts will appease an angry public. An opinion poll conducted by Taiwanese media after the news conference showed that dissatisfaction with Ma and Liu had risen to 54 percent and 59 percent respectively.

earlier related report
Taiwan says more than 460 missing after typhoon Taipei (AFP) Aug 21 - More than 460 people were missing nearly two weeks after Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, unleashing floods and mudslides that left more than 150 confirmed dead, emergency officials said Friday.

The figures appeared to confirm President Ma Ying-jeou's warnings that the disaster's death toll was likely to exceed 500, with hundreds feared buried.

The official death toll rose to 153 with an additional 464 missing, the National Fire Agency said in a statement.

Most of the missing were from the worst-hit southern Kaohsiung county with 87 confirmed deaths, while 384 others were buried and feared dead in one village alone, it said.

Taiwan meanwhile pushed ahead with the massive reconstruction effort as widespread outrage over the government's slow disaster response threatened to turn into a full-blown witch hunt.

Engineers assembled the first of 1,000 prefabricated homes donated by China to resettle thousands left homeless by floods and mudslides in hard-hit Pingtung county in the south of the island.

US military helicopters also continued to lift construction equipment into remote areas. Local television footage showed workers clearing village drainage systems by hand and with excavators.

The embattled Ma was seen traipsing through mud and bowing low before survivors in a gesture of apology while visiting two devastated villages in Kaohsiung county this week.

He is due to attend a reconstruction briefing there with Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan later Friday.

Ma's approval rating has sunk to 16 percent and three senior cabinet officials, including the defence minister, cabinet secretary, and deputy foreign minister, have offered to step down.

All three remain in their jobs but Liu has suggested a cabinet reshuffle next month was inevitable and that even his place in the government would be reviewed.

Media scrutiny of officials at all levels has intensified as local emergency officials defended themselves on television news against charges that they played mahjong or sang karaoke as the typhoon was hitting the island.

Even Ma was attacked on Friday for swimming lengths in the early morning during the typhoon's first couple of days. His spokesman denied the president maintained his usual exercise routine.

The prime minister had previously been criticised for getting a haircut and the cabinet secretary for dining with his family at a five-star hotel.

The cabinet Thursday approved a special budget of 100 billion Taiwan dollars (3.12 billion US) to pay for typhoon relief and reconstruction over the next three years and said it would submit it to parliament by the end of the week.

House speaker Wang Jin-pyng said parliament, now in recess, would hold an extra three-day session beginning Tuesday.

The government forecast Taiwan's economy would contract an extra 0.24 percentage points to 4.04 percent for 2009 due to the impact of Morakot.

However, Shih Su-mei, the minister in charge of the budgeting body, told reporters Thursday the additional spending on typhoon reconstruction projects could boost economic growth and offset the losses.

Typhoon Morakot dumped more than three metres (120 inches) of rain on the island, triggering floods and mudslides which swamped houses and buildings, ripped up roads and smashed bridges.

It 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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