Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

To support relief efforts in southern Taiwan, the City dispatched 873 rescue workers, 249 vehicles, 33 motor boats, 10 rafts and 29 drainage pumps to the front lines in the hard-hit areas. The City’s rescue team also helped in evacuating 607 people, including 437 in Pingtung, 103 in Tainan, 65 in Chiayi, and 2 in Kaohsiung.

To support Taipei’s rescue and relief teams, the Public Works Department (PWD) assigned 36 staffs along with various equipments – including four excavators, eight drainage pumps, and eight trucks – to Jinxing Village in Chiayi County.

The support staff worked hard to clean the streets of the 1,200-households community; the streets were blanketed by mounting piles of mud and debris, creating difficulties for people to get around. The cleanup took four days to complete, and the team removed 215 truckloads of garbage and silt.

In addition to disposing the trash, soaked furniture, and large-size wastes swept onto the streets by floodwater, the rescue team also helped residents clean the inside of their homes.

PWD Commissioner Chen Jin-yuan visited the staff stationed in Jinxing Village to offer his support and encouragement. One of the staff members remarked that cleaning up mud-filled streets is very different from managing construction projects; however, they believe the smiling faces and all the thank-yous make the labor worthwhile.