World

Typhoon Kills At Least 53 In Taiwan

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 2, 2000 / 9:42 AM EST / CBS

Typhoon Xangsane whirled away from Taiwan and closer to southern Japan on Thursday, leaving 53 dead and 10 missing in the island's worst flooding in three decades, officials said.

Packing winds of up to 90 miles per hour, the center of the typhoon hit Taiwan early Wednesday and stuck close to the eastern coast as it moved north. By late Wednesday, Xangsane – whose name means "elephant" or "elephant God" in Thai - moved away from the island.

Xangsane late Thursday was weakening to a tropical storm with winds below 74 miles per hour, located in the East China Sea as it moved toward Okinawa, Japan.

The official death toll does not include a Singapore Airlines plane that crashed while taking off Tuesday at the Taipei airport. Swirling gusts and torrential rains of the approaching typhoon may have played a role.

Taiwan experienced the worst flooding in 30 years as Xangsane swept across the northern part of the island, touching off a number of mudslides, some burying people who were nearby.

AP Photo/CNA
Rescuers paddle through
the streets of Hsichih, in
Taipei, looking for typhoon
victims.

Utility workers are trying to restore power to nearly 112,000 households across the island. Over 90,000 households are waiting for the water to be turned back on.

In the city of Keelung, 15 people drowned as they prayed while trapped in the basement of a Buddhist temple. Fourteen other people drowned in a home for senior citizens, while waiting for rescue workers.

"They were elderly and could not move very quickly," said an official at the Interior Ministry's disaster response center.

"By the time (help) arrived, all the people died," said one woman, who lost a parent in the flood.

On Wednesday, an Indonesian container ship capsized off the Keelung coast, southeast of Taipei. There are conflicting reports on how many people were aboard and how many survived. One report says there were 17 crewmembers and 12 were rescued; other reports say there were as many as 24 crewmembers, with just one survivor, a sailor who swam to shore and is now in the hospital.

The storm is taking a heavy toll on farmers, with agricultural losses estimated at over $62 million, the worst since 1996, when Typhoon Herb killed 73 people and caused $14 billion in damage.

In Keelung, river dikes collapsed, roads are blocked by flood-borne mud and silt, and wooden fishing boats remain moored in the harbor.

International flights were canceled from the southern port city of Kaohsiung to the Philippines, where the typhoon earlier left 26 people dead, 50 missing and property and an estimated $17 million in damages to crops.

Skies remained overcast in Taiwn Thursday as divers and rescue workers paddled through flooded streets to pick up residents stranded near half-submerged houses and cars.

In many neighborhoods, residents have been searching through the mud, looking for household appliances and groceries.

Typhoons are part of the landscape in Taiwan, which is frequently hit by the deadly storms.

This is the sixth typhoon so far this year.

In August, Typhoon Bilis killed 11 and injured 110 before moving to mainland China and weakening into a tropical storm.