FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — Baptists in Taiwan are assisting victims of Typhoon Morakot, which made landfall in the southern part of the island just before midnight on Aug. 7 and has caused some of the most widespread destruction in the nation's history.
By Aug. 18, 126 people had been confirmed dead, but government officials expect the death toll to rise to more than 500 as more bodies are found.
Joseph Tseng Ching-En, general secretary of Taiwan's Chinese Baptist Convention, told the Baptist World Alliance that most victims were "swallowed" by landslides that buried villages after the storm's torrential rains spurred the island's worst floods in 50 years.
At least six Baptists have died or are feared dead. Five members from one Baptist family are confirmed dead, while another Baptist church member, a police officer, went missing after trying to rescue persons affected by the typhoon. His body has not been recovered, but the police patrol car he was driving has been located.
Tseng said 15 Baptist churches are located in the disaster zone. Most cannot be contacted due to blocked roads, destroyed bridges and the loss of electricity and telephone services. Churches that could be reached were badly damaged or destroyed.
The convention has 209 churches and more than 14,000 members.
Baptist World Aid, the relief-and-development arm of the BWA, is coordinating the global Baptist response and is making an initial donation of $10,000 to support relief work currently underway by the Taiwan convention.
"We have been watching with concern the traumatic impact that this typhoon has wrought on your country," Paul Montacute, director of BWAid, wrote in a letter to Tseng. "On behalf of David Coffey, the BWA president, and Neville Callam, the BWA general secretary, I send to you, your convention and your country, our deepest condolences at this time."
Japan, the Philippines and China were also affected by the typhoon.
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