Typhoon Morakot

This weekend there was a typhoon that struck Taiwan. The main part hit me in Taipei. For me, it wasn't all that bad, there was a small leak in my house. Other than that, it was more or less an inconvenience for me. I had to stay inside since everything was closed (I did try to go out to a bookstore but that was shuttered up). There was some strong winds and some rain as Taipei was close to the center of the storm. For me the worst thing was a case of cabin fever.

So from my limited perspective it wasn't all that bad of a storm. But that is indeed a limited perspective. When I watched the local news (I don't watch tv in my apartment) I realized how serious the storm was.

Southern Taiwan got pounded by the typhoon (some places got over 1m of rain!). The southern part of the country and the mountainous spine that runs the length of Taiwan are vulnerable to floods and landslides in this sort of weather.

The mountainous areas had it especially rough it since they are dotted with tiny villages. Many times these villages clear areas to plant the betel palm. This palm produces a nut that is mildly addictive and used as a stimulant (think chewing tobacco) by many Taiwanese. The problem is that to grow betel palm you clear a lot of natural foliage and because the roots of the palm do not go deep they are prone to being washed away in landslides. However, for these rural areas this is the best source of income that they can find.

I have no idea if betel palms were a cause but there was a major landslide in a small village called Xiao Lin (Little Forest) that wiped out a village and now has 400 people missing. This is in addition to numerous bridges washed out and other landslides throughout the south.

Nothing like a little perspective.

For more pictures follow this link (this is also where I blatantly ripped the pictures in this post): http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/typhoon_morakot.html