Morakot ruins more bridges than the great earthquake of 1999

Weathermen lifted typhoon warnings Saturday, but downpours continued lashing central and southern Taiwan yesterday.

In an interview with the official Central News Agency, a Central University bridge construction professor said Morakot wreaked more havoc with bridges than the 1999 quake, in which more than 1,000 people in central Taiwan were killed.

The earthquake, one of the biggest ever recorded in Taiwan, ruined 20 bridges.

All of them were highway bridges, which are more prone to destruction than railroad bridges, said Professor Yao Nai-chia.

According to his initial estimate, altogether 21 bridges, two of them railroad bridges, were ruined in floods triggered by the torrential rains Morakot brought to Taiwan.

“As a matter of fact,” Professor Yao said, “it's the heaviest damage done to our bridges in more than ten years.” Of them, 10 collapsed, with their parts washing down the torrential rivers.

The remaining 21 were cracked, Yao said. “They are unpassable,” he added. The two railroad bridges had their foundations almost washed bare, making them vulnerable to crumbling.

Huge rocks flushed down from the upper reaches of mountains hit a number of highway bridge bases, causing collapses and cracking, Yao said.

He said no more bridge collapses would occur as the floods had already begun subsiding.

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