Rural Taitung county faces painful reconstruction a week after Typhoon Krathon slammed the area with heavy rain and landslides.
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00:00For Ms. Hong, Typhoon Kraton is a nightmare that won't end.
00:04The storm dumped 200 centimetres of rain on this rural part of the southeast last week,
00:08burying the fields and orchards.
00:10On her ruined farm, the amount of clean-up work alone has left her exhausted.
00:14We only have the chest area now, nothing else.
00:17We have to clean up everything ourselves.
00:20And agricultural losses are just one part of the disaster the area's been through.
00:25Raging floodwaters burst embankments and swept whole bridges away.
00:29With so much infrastructure lost, rebuilding the lives of local farmers and others will
00:33take a painfully long time.
00:39And it will take a lot of money.
00:41Just repairing embankments could take close to 16 million US dollars.
00:45And that's money local people say they just don't have.
00:48We have to ask the government and the government to help us.
00:53If they don't help us, we won't be able to pay our bills.
00:56On Friday, officials inspected damage and pledged help.
01:00In addition to the flood damage caused by the Typhoon Kraton,
01:05the Rural Water Protection Agency is already working on a plan
01:09to re-manage the entire water-suffering area.
01:15And a lawmaker representing the area is even talking about using military muscle to help rebuild.
01:27Local people feel that whatever help comes, needs to come quickly.
01:31As much of Taiwan moves on from last week's storm,
01:34in this part of the country, the disaster is far from over.
01:38Andy Hsu and John Van Schriest for Taiwan Plus.