According to JapanToday, the death toll from the Typhoon Morakot caused mudslides and related damage could be as high as 600 after the typhoon dumped over 2-meters of rain (79-inches!) on the island nation. The mudslide that virtually destroyed the entire village of Hsiao-lin (guardian.co.uk) or Shiaolin (Japan Today) could have as many as 400-500 of those casualties. Most rescue efforts have been halted, but many people are still missing and possibly buried under mudslide and landslide debris as the Taiwanese President is coming under fire for his handling of disaster. (AP Photo via Guardian.co.uk)
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Mud and debris from a small landslide closed a portion of Sepulveda Blvrd. In Westwood California on Thursday. The slide took out at least one local resident’s backyard and was large enough to block several lanes of the roadway with debris up to 6-ft high in addition to knocking out several power poles and disrupting service. The material was cleared up by 10pm but not before it cause some inconvenience to UCLA basketball fans on their way to watch their team beat Stanford. The LA Times reports that there were questions about possible broken water lines, of course it is the old "chicken or the egg" argument that’s been seen before (including on a recent landslide) about whether the broken water lines contributed to the landslide, or the landslide caused the water line breaks. (Photo by Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)