News

    An unexpected landslide took place in the Renhe Village, Mingjian Township, Nantou County. The local mountain foot alleys and wild creek slopes were not able to withstand the consecutive nights of heavy rain. As much as approximately 72,000 m3 of landslide mud was suddenly washed down in the early morning of the 16th. Fortunately, the local residents who woke up early were alarmed by the noise and they were able to notify one another about the incident. They were able to evacuate in time with no casualties as a result, but the mudslide ran over a dozen residential houses – one of them was even nearly buried by the landslide and is no longer safe to live in.

    Nantou Magistrate Lin Ming-zhen rearranged his schedule and hurried to the site to better understand the circumstances at 4pm. Mingjian Township Council Chairman Chen Guo-neng anxiously reported to Magistrate Lin that there were hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of soil and stones from the landslide that urgently needed to be cleaned up. Even though the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture has committed to providing assistance, the question of where to place this large amount of soil and stones is a greatly vexing issue to solve.

    In addition to acknowledging the local village people’s high level of vigilance, proactiveness in giving out warnings and evacuating in time to ensure everyone’s safety, Magistrate Lin Ming-zhen also listened to the concerns about the soil and stones waiting to be removed and immediately responded that the soil was actually valuable. The neighboring Jiji Township already has a legal soil dumpsite and it definitely has the capacity to take in all the soil transported from the landslide location. Moreover, Lin has built this soil dumpsite while he was the Jiji Township Mayor, so the County Government will surely fully support the coordination measures for the disposal.

    Deputy Magistrate Chen Zheng-sheng rushed to the Renhe Village for a more in-depth investigation and to give his regards right after he was notified about the incident. It was understood that after the disaster occurred, there were more than 50 village people who were temporarily relocated to be with their families and friends, and there were more than 30 other village people who were helped to temporarily settle at the community center.