Barrier lake evacuation alerts to be raised to higher emergency level

Taipei, Sept. 28 (CNA) Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said Sunday that evacuation alerts for major mudslide floods, including those involving barrier lakes, would be upgraded to a tsunami-level warning to indicate a higher state of emergency.

The decision was announced at a Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) meeting, after the Matai'an Creek Barrier Lake in Hualien County overflowed on Tuesday due to heavy rains brought by Typhoon Ragasa, resulting in severe floods that left 17 dead and seven missing as of Sunday morning.

The National Fire Agency and National Police Agency will review their standard operating procedures and incorporate barrier lake evacuations into their alert systems, Liu said.

Meanwhile, Vice Economics Minister Lai Chien-hsin (賴建信) said three alarm stations will also be set up near barrier lakes, which will sound nine five-second alarms to signal evacuations in case of such emergencies.

Speaking about the current state of the emergency response to the flood disaster in eastern Taiwan, Lai said search and rescue operations were ongoing.

Airborne Service Corps helicopters are being used to search for survivors, and digging begins whenever vital signs are detected, he said.

Missing persons are being located with help from the county government's police and shelter systems, he added.

Lai said that the ministry's Water Resources Agency completed riverbed diversion operations on Sunday. Flood-blocking operations are underway, and will hopefully be finished by the end of the day, he added.

A CEOC report said aerial shots taken by a drone indicate that the top of the barrier lake dam has dropped from a height of 200 meters to 82 meters.

The lake's surface area has decreased from 140 hectares to 13.5 hectares, holding 6 million cubic meters of water -- 6.6 percent of its original volume before the overflow, the report said.

The CEOC said the area remains under a "red alert," with erosion from the lake's outflow and continued rainfall creating unstable slopes.