Taitung in southeastern Taiwan took a direct hit from Typhoon Kong-rey. While few people were injured, the county's rice farms are now counting the cost.
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00:00Down in southeastern Taitung, farmers are assessing the damage to their crops.
00:05Rick Lauder is live for us from a rice valley in Taitung.
00:08Rick, Kongrui made landfall pretty much where you are.
00:11Just how serious is the damage there?
00:16Well, this is Cheshang. Usually at this time of year, it's a valley that is a sea of gold.
00:21Rice, ripe and ready for harvest.
00:24But after Typhoon Kongrui, many of the fields look like this.
00:27Flattened and flooded by the storms, wind and rain.
00:30Now, Taitung County is one of the country's most important agricultural regions.
00:35A lot of the country's fruit and rice is grown here.
00:39And Typhoon Kongrui hit when this produce was weeks, and in the case of this rice, just days away from harvest.
00:45This was a particularly late typhoon, and it's having a devastating effect on agriculture here.
00:51We spent the morning talking to some of the region's farmers.
00:57It's been 10 days since the typhoon hit, so the rice is very heavy.
01:02So with such a big typhoon, wind and rain, the damage is at least 30% or more.
01:12For many people here, this typhoon means six months of work, quite literally going down the drain.
01:17Farmers here today telling me that nowadays they not only need to know how to grow their crops,
01:22they also need to know how to predict the weather.