Taiwan: The stories of the survivors from Typhoon Morakot

出自Taipedia

有一個古老的傳說人死後，變成了天上的星星，眷顧著留戀著他所深愛的人們 1999.9.21台灣中部大地震之後，夜空繁星閃爍每顆星星的背後，都有一個令人心碎的故事 ──《921安魂曲地震紀念專輯》文宣

A legend says that we will become the stars after death so that we can look after our beloved ones. After the 921 Earthquake in 1999, when we see stars twinkling in the night, we know that every star has its own heart-broken story.—written in the propaganda of ‘Requiem for the 921 Earthquake.’

Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan on 8/8. The heavy rain it brought to Taiwan from 8/8 caused serious damage: Hundreds of people were buried by the typhoon-spawned mudslide engulfed in Hsiaolin village. In central and southern Taiwan, thousands of people were trapped in their villages because of the flood or the landslide. In eastern Taiwan, houses were swept away by the swollen river. Thousands of people were evacuated, and millions of agriculture losses were estimated.

Survivors from the mudslide-engulfed Hsiaolin village talked about what happened on 8/8:

黃金寶和九鄰壯丁從七日晚就徹夜守望，近六點時，洪水以迅雷不及掩耳之勢席捲而至，大水一下淹到腰部，黃金寶…立即高聲叫喚親友避難，四十三人中，有九位小孩、兩位中風病患、一位孕婦。逃難時，黃金寶聽到巨響…身旁的村民驚呼：「崩山啊！」整個小林社區剎那間就不見了。

Jing-Bao Huang and some men in this area kept awake since the night on 8/7. About six in the morning on 8/8, the outburst flood submerged everything below the waist. Jing-Bao Haung…yelled a warning to his family and friends. Among the 43 people who ran out of the village, nine are children, two are suffered from stroke, and one is pregnant. When they were running out of the village, Jing-Bao Huang heard a loud sound…the villager beside him shouted, ‘it is a landslide!’ The whole Hsiaolin village was engulfed by the landslide at that moment.

On 8/11, the survivors from Hsiaolin villages were eager to go back to see what happened to their families. Sharplin, a reporter wrote in her blog:

一大早, 旗山國中早已擠滿心急如焚的家屬…小林村的家屬們好幾度在直昇機要降落時衝往操場…我問家屬怎麼了, 他們說, 是因為昨天有人答應, 要讓他們當中有人可以坐直昇機回去看, 再回來跟其他人講, 可是今天一直等一直等, 都沒人鳥他們.

In the early morning, Chishan junior high school was packed by these anxious families of Hsiaoling villagers…These people ran to the playground every time when there was a helicopter landing…I asked them why. They told me someone promised that some of them could go back Hsiaolin village and tell others what happened. Nevertheless, they have waited for the whole day and no one notice them.

8/15 is the seventh day after the mudslide, which is an important day for the dead in Taiwanese traditional religion. The survivors from Hsiaolin village and the families of those missing villagers tried to go back their village to hold the religious ceremony for the dead. Avant went to Hsiaolin village with them.

站在曾經是小林村的土地上，放眼望去所有人工的東西，比如建築物的殘骸、車體零件或村民日常生活用品都看不見，就只剩下巨石、泥流和漂流木！那些電視機的聲音，人們的歌聲，講話聲都聽不到了，四周無聲，現在的小林村變成是靜的可怕死寂。

Standing at the place where Hsiaolin village was used to be, I could not see any man-made object: no building wreckage, no car parts, and no articles for daily use. All I saw were huge rocks, mud, and drift wood! I could not hear the sound of televisions, the singing, or even speech. Nothing. Now Hsiaolin village is deadly quiet.

一些罹難者的家屬拿著紙錢和香，渡過惡水回到村子祭拜不幸罹難的家屬。他們依著對面的山形，約略找出家的位置後，跪拜亡魂並聲聲呼喚：阿爸！阿母！阮ê心肝囝啊！在一片死寂，只有土石和漂流木的山谷中，他們不停的呼喊著：「阿母恁緊出來喔！」、「恁有聽著無？」、「恁緊轉來喔！」........

Family members of the victims walked across the rivers to go back to the village. They brought paper-made resembling money and incense as offerings to the dead. After they localize where their home should be by the patterns of the nearby mountains, they kneeled down and called, ‘Dad!’ ‘Mom!’ ‘My beloved children!’ In the deadly quiet valley with only mud, rocks, and drift wood, they kept calling, ‘Mom, come back to me!’ ‘Do you hear me?’ ‘Come back to me!

After this devastating typhoon, 452 riverside areas in 11 counties were announced to be in ‘red alerts,’ and 328 areas in 129 villages in 12 counties were announced to be in ‘yellow alerts.’ The residents in the red-alert area should be evacuated immediately. However, not all of them were willing to leave. Chyng said:

居民說，村裡許多長者不肯撤。...我問她，居民的理由？Ｆ回答：「居民說，『親人都死了，我出去幹嘛？』」

The residents said many seniors in the villages are not willing to be evacuated…I asked her why, F told me,’ they said, “my family are all dead, so why should I go?”’

In the southern Taiwan, many villages were still submerged by the flood. shuchuan went to some villages there on 8/12 and reported,

走進靠海的佳冬鄉塭豐村、豔豐村，積水深及大腿，家具、碎玻璃、各式各樣的垃圾、半個人高的石斑魚漂在水面。家家戶戶堆滿汙泥，多數人都已逃離，連軍隊都進不到裡面。

When I walked into the Wenfeng village and Yanfeng village in Jiadung township, which are close to the sea, my thigh was in the water. There was furniture, glasses, different kinds of trash, and half-person-high Epinephelus in the water. All houses were filled with mud. Most people were gone. Even military cannot go into the villages.

入夜的林邊、佳冬空氣還有一股動物屍體夾雜汙泥、濕氣的腐臭味。多數住家已不見人影，還留下來的，戴上口罩，拿著手電筒摸黑清理家園，或聚在門前泡茶，居民鄭生生說，「大家都不敢睡啊」。

In the evening in Linbian and Jiadung township, there was still the rotten odor in the air due to the dead animals and mud. Most people were gone. The people who chose to stay either wore a mask and held a flashlight to clean their home or gathered together to have a cup of tea. One resident, Hseng-Hseng Chang said, ‘no one dares to sleep.’

Taitung County in eastern Taiwan was also suffered from the flood brought by Typhoon Morakot. Apophoto went to Taitung County and reported the conditions in blog.

被沖毀的台九線和柔腸寸斷的南迴鐵路，這也中斷了太麻裡以南的所有交通，金峰、達仁、大武因此成了孤島，將近兩萬人受困其中，只能以空投物資的方式來援助居民。

The flood destroyed route nine and the railroad. Therefore, for the area south to Taimali, there was no road connecting to the outside world. Jingfeng, Daren, and Dawu were isolated now. Those twenty thousand people trapped in these villages could only rely on the supply dropped by the helicopter.

上一次的海棠颱風也曾重創嘉蘭部落，衝垮十幾戶房舍，因此這次居民已學到教訓，在溪水暴漲前，都已緊急收拾家當撤離，也因此慶幸部落並沒有太多傷亡，但被水沖走衝倒的房子，卻是很多人一生的心血，只能流著淚看它潰堤。

Jialang village was hit by Typhoon Haitang last time, and more than ten houses were swept away. The residents learned the lesson and prepared to leave before the river was raised. It is good that not many people were hurt this time. Nevertheless, those houses that were swept away by the swollen river are what the residents have. They could only watch the river overflow the embankment with tear.

The survivors are heart-broken, so many people try to cheer them up and help them rebuild their home. A charity concert "Sing for Home" was held in Taipei on 8/15. This is the lyric of a song sung in the concert:

也許有一天　有一天能跟隨你的腳步踏上遙遠的　回家的路回到老家　拿回泥土還我土地　重建家園就是我啊

Maybe someday I will follow your steps Step the road and go back home Go back home and hold the earth Hold the earth and rebuild my home. This is me.