10 trains added to bring disaster relief volunteers to Hualien

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Taiwan Railway Corp. (TRC) will add 10 trains to its normal schedule from Saturday to Monday to bring volunteers to Hualien County to help with disaster relief efforts there, the company said Friday.

Massive floods have hit Guangfu Township in the county since Tuesday after the heavy rainfall of Typhoon Ragasa triggered an overflow of the Matai'an Creek Barrier Lake.

The floods not only killed 15 people and left another eight missing, many people were also forced to evacuate their homes and are being cared for in shelters, and heaps of mud and debris are splattered over the landscape, requiring a massive support effort.

Government agencies have been unable to muster up the manpower needed to help those in distress and clean up the area, and many volunteers already mobilized in Guangfu on Friday to lend a helping hand.

TRC posted photos of some of those arriving volunteers on Friday and decided to add an additional 10 train services from Saturday to Monday to allow more people to contribute their time to the cleanup effort.

In praising the volunteers, TRC grouped them into different categories of "supermen," with some considered to be "shovel supermen" and others seen as "cooking supermen," and it hailed them as the guardians of the island who have united Taiwan with their warmth.

Besides the addition of 10 services in the coming three days, the TRC will also have more regular trains stop at Guangfu Railway Station and open the trains to standing tickets to enable the volunteers to get to the embattled area.