Agricultural loss caused by Typhoon Meranti on Taiwan have been estimated at nearly NT$800 million (S$34 million), a report said Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Air Force apologised for failing to provide meals to its servicemen dispatched to a village in the mountains of Hualien to help with prevention work against typhoon-triggered disasters last week.
Meranti, which ravaged Southern Taiwan on Tuesday, damaged over NT$460 million worth of crops in Kaohsiung alone, the United Evening News reported, citing the city’s Agriculture Bureau.
The city’s guava farms sustained heavy damage, with losses estimated at more than NT$200 million, the bureau said, adding that jujube farms were hit with losses estimated at over NT$90 million.
In Pingtung, aquaculture farms were also hit hard by Meranti. In some cases, power outages caused failures to life-support systems for grouper ponds, resulting in losses of more than NT$14 million from fish deaths, according to Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Haung Hung-yan.
But Huang said power supply to the Pingtung grouper farms had been more than 80 per cent restored.
Huang also said work was continuing at Taitung’s Fugang Fishing Port to clear the area of driftwood washed down from the mountains.
AFP, Reuters
Hungry Servicemen
The United Evening News reported that servicemen of Wing 401 complained after their Air Force unit failed to send them meals while they were working at Wenlan Village in the mountains of Hualien to help with disaster prevention efforts last week, during which two typhoons hit Taiwan.
The servicemen said their superiors had them ask the village chief for food, upon which they were given rice and canned food only, according to local media.
“For the failure to send meals, which resulted in complaints from the servicemen, the Air Force Command Headquarters apologises,” the Air Force said in a press statement issued in response to the report.
The Air Force added that it had instructed all of its disaster prevention units to take good care of its members.
Before the Air Force released the press statement, Defence Minister Feng Shih-kuan gave what was regarded as a confusing response to the Air Force servicemen’s meal complaints.
Asked for comment on the Air Force case, the minister said he had personally checked the meal boxes prepared for Army servicemen sent to do disaster prevention work in Southern Taiwan.
Feng said he found that the meals were “better” than the ones usually sold in restaurants and the one given him.
