page_title: Typhoon Morakot
section_title: Preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Typhoon Morakot / Preparations
caption_attribution_description: English: Weakened after crossing the mountainous island of Taiwan, Typhoon Morakot moved ashore over southern China on August 9, 2009. This image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite at 1:15 p.m., local time (5:15 UTC) on August 9, shows the center of the storm coming ashore over China. Morakot exhibits a loose spiral shape without the distinctive bands of clouds or eye evident in stronger storms. At the time this image was taken, Morakot had winds of about 75 kilometers per hour (45 miles per hour or 40 knots). More damaging, however, was the storm’s intense rain. Morakot moved slowly over Taiwan, releasing a torrent of rain over the island that lasted several days. Southern Taiwan recorded a record 8 feet (244 centimeters) of rain, reported the New York Times. The rain caused flooding and landslides, one of which buried a village in Taiwan. As of August 10, thirty-seven people had been reported dead in the Philippines, Taiwan, and China, not including those affected by the landslide said the New York Times.
context_page_description: Typhoon Morakot, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Kiko, was the deadliest typhoon to impact Taiwan in recorded history. The eighth named storm and fourth typhoon of the 2009 Pacific typhoon season, Morakot wrought catastrophic damage in Taiwan, leaving 673 people dead and 26 missing, and causing roughly NT$110 billion in damages. The storm produced copious amounts of rainfall, peaking at 2,777 mm, far surpassing the previous record of 1,736 mm set by Typhoon Herb in 1996. The extreme amount of rain triggered enormous mudflows and severe flooding throughout southern Taiwan. One landslide destroyed the entire town of Siaolin, killing over 400 people. The slow-moving storm also caused widespread damage in China, leaving eight people dead and causing $1.4 billion in damages. Nearly 2,000 homes were destroyed in the country and 136,000 more were reported to have sustained damage.
  In the wake of the storm, Taiwan's government faced extreme criticism for the slow response to the disaster and having only initially deployed roughly 2,100 soldiers to the affected regions. Later, the number of soldiers working to recover trapped residents increased to 46,000.
caption: Tropical Storm Morakot over eastern China on August 9
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