'Typhoon Toraji' death toll at 89

'Typhoon Toraji' death toll at 89

TAIPEI (AFP): The death toll from Typhoon Toraji's rampage through Taiwan has risen to 89, with 133 people still reported as missing, officials said Saturday.

Rescue efforts would continue despite fading hopes of finding more survivors in mudslides and rockfalls after the typhoon struck last weekend, said Minister Without Portfolio Chen Chin- huang, who heads a special rescue and reconstruction task force.

"We would not give up any hope until the last minute," Chen told reporters.

The National Fire Administration (NFA), which coordinates major rescue operations in Taiwan, dispatched hundreds of workers in the typhoon-hit areas while more than 22,000 soldiers were called in to help clean up, the NFA said.

The cost for reconstruction was estimated at 10 billion Taiwan dollars (US$288.4 million) as roads, bridges, hundreds of homes and thousands of hectares (acres) of farmland were wiped out, Chen said.

The eastern Hualien region was the worst hit by mudslides while central Nantou suffered serious flooding as water from swollen rivers inundated homes and farmland.

The Council of Agriculture said damage to the farm industry was estimated at seven billion Taiwan dollars ($202 million).

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung on Friday vowed to eradicate the betel trees illegally grown on thousands of hectares (acres) of government forest land and plant millions of trees to hold the soil in a bid to avoid future mudslides.

The methods used to grow betel trees have been blamed for contributing to the mudslides by damaging the environment and soil.

Toraji, packing winds of 150 kilometers per hour, struck the island and unleashed torrential rains which triggered massive mudslides described by villagers as the worst in 50 years.

It was the latest in a series of storms to batter Taiwan this typhoon season.