Some areas of southern Taiwan have recovered more rapidly than others from the powerful 2009 typhoon with its deadly flooding and landslides. BY STEVEN CROOK AND ERYK MICHAEL SMITH Typhoon Morakot, which smashed into central and southern Taiwan on August 8, 2009, was the deadliest, most destructive storm in Taiwan’s recorded history. The typhoon dumped…
Typhoon Soudelor slammed into Taiwan’s northern coast on August 8, making landfall at 5 a.m. with sustained winds of 161 kilometers per hour and gusts reportedly as high as 230 kph. Schools, workplaces, and transportation networks were all shut down Friday night as the typhoon neared. Six people were killed and dozens injured by the…
The recent water park tragedy brought to light some of the strengths and weaknesses of Taiwan’s emergency medical system. In what New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu described as the “worst incident of mass injury [ever] in New Taipei,” a dust explosion at the Formosa Fun Coast water park on June 27 flooded emergency rooms…
A massive explosion during a music and dance event at the Formosa Fun Water Park on June 27 has so far killed 10 and left some 500 injured, nearly 200 of them severely burned. Dubbed the “Color Play Asia Party,” the event featured colored powder blown onto participants dancing in an empty swimming pool. The…
On February 4, TransAsia Airways flight GE235 crashed into the Keelung River just after takeoff, killing 43 and injuring 15. The Airbus ATR-72-600 plane carrying 53 passengers – 37 of them Chinese tourists – and five cabin crew took off from Songshan Airport in the heart of Taipei at 10:52 a.m. bound for the offshore…
