Police and firefighters evacuated 187 guests down from a mountain holiday villa in eastern Yilan County on Wednesday, where they had been trapped since Sunday due to road damage and landslides from recent heavy rain.
Local authorities initially said they planned to evacuate 175 trapped guests on Wednesday from Mingchi Villa located in Yilan’s Makauy Ecological Park.
According to the Taoyuan City Government, at 1:36 p.m. on Wednesday, 122 of the guests were escorted off of the Yilan villa through a route towards Taoyuan.
A second group of guests were then led off the mountain using the same route at 3:30 p.m.
According to the Taoyuan government, there are still people in the villa, consisting of mostly employed staff, who would get off the mountain by themselves later.
The occupants of the villa were trapped in the mountain for the last four days due to recent heavy rains causing landslides and damages to sections of major highways in Taiwan, one of which was the main route towards the recreational park from Yilan.
According to the Directorate General of Highways, the 49.8-kilometer and 84.1-km sections on Provincial Highway No. 7 had been cleared as of Wednesday, while a single lane had also been cleared between the 0-0.5 km sections on the same highway.
However, the directorate general added that seven sections of the Northern Cross-Island Highway and a section of the Central Cross-Island Highway remained closed for repairs.
The directorate general elaborated that landslide debris still needed to be cleared on the 49.7-km section on Provincial Highway No. 7, and on the 68.4-km as well as the 68.5-km sections of the highway.
Since landslides are more severe on the highway’s 86.4-km to 86.6-km sections, the area will likely remain closed until Oct. 22. As the foundations were washed away on the highway’s 74-km, 81.6-km, and 83-km sections, the estimated date when repairs will be completed is Oct. 31.
In central Taiwan, since the foundations between the 114.6-km to 120.6-km sections on Provincial Highway No. 8 had been washed away, the directorate general estimated that repairs would not be completed until around Nov. 7.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel