Typhoons striking the Asian region had claimed at least 29 lives as of Monday, with the death toll feared to rise further as rescue workers searched destroyed homes and buildings for hundreds of missing persons. Latest figures released by officials gave the death toll in Taiwan at 15, along with 13 in Japan and one in China. Japan was suffering the ninth typhoon of the current season.
In southern Taiwan, rescue workers were looking for some 450 villagers whose homes were buried by rockslides after Typhoon Morakot in the island's worst flooding in 50 years.
The National Fire Agency said they first found 43 survivors from Hsiaolin Village, and later spotted another 100 taking shelter in a slope near the village said to have 600 villagers.
"We have so far found 43 people and air-lifted 32 of them from Hsiaolin Village," said Huang Chi-min, director of National Fire Agency, earlier Monday.
Huang said the rescue unit dispatched a helicopter to search for survivors after reports that the mountain village in the southern county of Kaohsiung was buried by rockslide overnight.
Earlier on Monday, one of the survivors told the rescue unit he believed more than 600 other villagers were either trapped or buried by the rockslide, but according to the census authorities, more than 1,000 people had registered their household status in the village.
"I didn't see other villagers. There were 600 of them. I don't know where they are still alive or not," the survivor was seen in a local television footage telling the rescue unit.
Huang said the rescue unit would continue to search for the survivors. Rescuers later alerted the agency they found another 100 villagers and was taking care of them before they were airlifted to safer places.
In the central county of Nantou, police Monday retrieved the body of a man believed to be one of the eight victims from five cars which were washed away by flashflood at a caved-in section of a riverside road on Sunday.
The government said at least 15 people were killed, 55 missing and 32 injured.
By Monday, waist-high floodwaters were reported in some low-lying areas in southern and eastern Taiwan after Morakot dumped a record 2,500 millimetres of rains in the region.
The Council of Agriculture estimated at least 5.06 billion Taiwan dollars (150 million US dollars) in agricultural losses so far. Flood victims would be given long-term low-interest loans to help them rebuild farm facilities and housing, it said.
Meanwhile the death toll in Japan rose to 13 from torrential rains, flooding and landslides brought by Typhoon Etau.
In the hardest-hit prefectures, Hyogo and Okayama in western Japan, with several people still missing as darkness fell and rescuers continued to search for victims.
At least 2,000 people sought shelter in schools and other public buildings in the town of Sayocho. Houses were destroyed by mudslides and the authorities had to close some roads. In the capital Tokyo, Monday morning traffic was obstructed by the rain.
Authorities called on some 30,000 residents in the region to evacuate themselves to safer areas.
Meanwhile Typhoon Morakot weakened into a tropical storm over China after causing heavy destruction in the east of the country.
At least one person, a 4-year-old boy, was killed when hundreds of buildings were destroyed, Chinese media said. About 1 million residents on the Chinese coast were evacuated.
