TAIPEI, Taiwan, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Typhoon Morakot dumped record rainfall on Taiwan as it passed over the island Saturday, causing flooding and mudslides.
At least one person died and four were missing, The China Post reported. Two police officers clung to an electrical post for three hours waiting for rescue after their cruiser was swept away by a flood.
The typhoon made landfall late Friday. By the time Morakot left the island Saturday afternoon, it was a tropical storm.
In Pingtung County in the south, flood waters in the town of Linpien covered the ground floors of buildings to ceiling height.
"We've never seen such heavy rainfalls over the past 50 years. We're scared," one Pingtung resident told the United Evening News.
The Central Weather Bureau said 5 feet or more of rain was likely to fall in some parts of the south by the time the weather clears.
Thousands of homes and businesses were without power at some point during the storm. Officials said Morakot also did millions of dollars in damage to crops.
Morakot has also hit Okinawa and the Philippines, where a lahar, or mudslide, on Mount Pinatubo killed at least seven people.
