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11 Dead, 1 Missing in Wake of Typhoon Bilis in Taiwan Province
At least eleven people were dead, 79 were injured and one was listed as missing after Typhoon Bilis roared across Taiwan Island on Wednesday, according to statistics released by Taiwan authorities.
Eight people in central Nantou County died when they were buried alive overnight by a mudslide that washed away a workers' hut in which they were sheltering from the strong winds and torrential rains. Their bodies were retrieved Wednesday.
Meanwhile, 27-year-old worker Lin Tsai-mao was killed Tuesday when a retaining wall collapsed at a construction site in Pali,Taipei County.
Another victim, Lin Hsueh-ying, 50, was killed while standing on the balcony of her house. She was hit by a large piece of metal blown from the roof of an illegal structure built atop an apartment building some 200 meters away. Authorities are investigating to determine who is responsible for the tragic accident.
Tu Chung-yi, 63, was hit and killed by a wooden door that had blown off its frame in Taoyuan City, northern Taiwan.
Seventy-nine people were injured, 14 of them seriously, according to statistics.
Chen Yi-chieh, a doctor at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, was separated from his companions while climbing a mountain in Hualien, eastern Taiwan. A search for Chen was still under way at the time the statistics were released.
Preliminary estimates of agricultural losses were over NT$2.7 billion (US$87 million).
As the typhoon crossed Taiwan late Tuesday and early Wednesday, its strong winds knocked out the electricity supplies for nearly one million households around the island. As of 8 p.m. Wednesday, electricity for 156,428 households had not yet been restored.
A total of 106 houses on the island were damaged by Bilis, which collided with Taiwan late Tuesday and was making inroads into Fujian Province Wednesday evening.
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