TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The last 96 people of more than 300 left Mingchi Resort in the mountains of Yilan County Saturday (Oct. 22), seven days after being trapped inside by landslides caused by Typhoon Nesat.
The final group to have stayed included 35 guests of the resort, 31 employees, 17 police officers and firefighters, and 13 teachers and students of National Yilan University who had sought refuge at the villas after having been stranded in the mountains for five days during a research trip to a lake. After the evacuation was completed just before noon Saturday, just two staff members and three police officers stayed behind, with the search continuing for a woman reported missing, CNA reported.
While Typhoon Nesat moved west through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines during the previous weekend, extremely heavy rain battered northern and northeastern parts of Taiwan, causing widespread flooding and landslides.
Mingchi Resort, on a mountain road between Taoyuan City and Yilan County, became completely isolated, trapping more than 200 guests inside after the weekend. After initial work, a rescue team succeeded in accompanying 180 people out to Taoyuan on Oct. 19, while it supplied food parcels to those left behind.
They had been scheduled to drive away on Oct. 20, but new rockslides prevented them from doing so. Around 4 a.m. Saturday, a member of staff experienced low blood pressure and drifted in and out of consciousness, prompting rescue workers to take medicines to the resort.
After 10 a.m., a road had been cleared, allowing the employee to be transported to Taoyuan for medical care, and opening the way for the remaining 96 people to leave the resort and head for home.
With a new tropical depression likely to follow in the tracks of Typhoon Nesat, the Central Weather Bureau has warned of heavy rain in the mountains of Taipei and New Taipei, the coastal area of Keelung, Yilan County, and on Green Island and Orchid Island in Taitung County.