(Bloomberg) — Flooding from Super Typhoon Ragasa has killed nearly 20 people in a rural area of southeastern Taiwan, with rescuers now trying to find more than a dozen others who are still missing.
The government set up 17 shelters to accommodate more than 1,000 individuals displaced by the storm. The number of missing dropped significantly from the previously reported 152. Fire officials said that people were either found or contacted, United Daily News reported.
Heavy rains overwhelmed a natural dam that had built up in recent months due to landslides on the Mataian River in Hualien County, emergency officials said. The collapse caused a deluge that swamped nearby towns and villages, injuring dozens of people.
Eastern Taiwan has been inundated by rainfall in recent days. Weather officials forecast the stricken area will get a downpour of 700-800 millimeters (27.6 to 31.5 inches) this week. Emergency officials added that the rainfall has started to ease, and they expect the overflow from the collapsed natural dam will gradually reduce.
The incident adds to a long list of deadly typhoons that have lashed Taiwan over the years. Last year, Typhoon Gaemi caused 16 deaths, and in 2009 Typhoon Morakot killed more than 600 people, making it the deadliest storm to hit Taiwan in five decades.
Ragasa moved away from Hong Kong overnight and will soon cross China’s southern coast, where it is expected to dump torrential rain. About two million people have been evacuated from that densely-populated area, which is home to such major cities as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, according to CNN.
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