Thursday, August 13, 2009

Relief Update from the DPP Department of International Affairs

Dear everyone,

DPP headquarters and local chapters recently have been occupied by the Typhoon Morakot disaster relief operations. Floods, mudflows and landslides...the worst in the 50 years. While most of the counties in the South are fortunately able to start the recovery process, the rescue mission still continued in mountainous areas and Kaohsiung county, where death and causality numbers are still rising.

I just came back from Tainan county with my colleges last night. We were the first DPP disaster relief team to go to the south - some of us went to Tainan and the others went to Pingtung. We work in three-day shifts, and now the second team is stationed in these two counties (the Tainan team is led by DPP Dept of International Affairs Bikhim Hsiao). When we first departed to Tainan three days ago, we traveled with three volunteers... but now there are 73. In Pingtung, there are also about 60 volunteers. DPP HQ just sent a new team to Kaohsiung county this morning.

Tainan county is slowly recovering now. There is no flooding, but it still rains quit often. (I was told by my colleges in Pingtung that it rains non-stop there, so they have to work in the rain and their clothes are never dry.) We've delivered items such as water, instant noodles, bread, and cookies to the families trying hard to clean their houses and furniture covered with mud (they still don't have stable electricity or a stable water supply). What worries us is the possible outbreak of the disease once the weather gets better (since the garbage is still piling up on the streets and there is dead fish and rotten fruit floating down the rivers). The next immediate task is to clean up the community.

I've uploaded the photos we took in Tainan on our DPP Foreign Facebook Page.

Your support and help are a source of great comfort and encouragement to us as well as those families impacted by the typhoon.

Best regards,

Hsiaoching Liu
Associate researcher
DPP Department of International Affairs

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