In order to place the affected residents who were affected by the Morakot Typhoon, the permanent housing provided by the ROC Red Cross Society was completed and dedicated today (the 12th). The community was named RiAn Community Fanlu Village Permanent Housing Base. It is the first in Chiayi County, and is the first completed permanent housing community adopted by the ROC Red Cross. 

In the joyful ambiance accompanied by a dragon dance, Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council CEO Lin and Deputy CEO Chern attended the opening ceremony. They offered praise and recognition to the Red Cross in devoting a huge amount of human and various other types of resources in actively meeting the completion of the project.

President Ma advised that upon seeing the inauguration of the RiAa commjnity, he was very comforted. The progress of reconstruction after Typhoon Morakot was rarely fast. 1,480 permanent houses have been completed up to now. Compared to the 9/21 earthquake 10 years ago, when 1344 apartments and houses were completed more than 3.5 years after the disaster, and where the housing was sold to the affected people, this was a great difference.  

The government learned much from the 9/21 earthquake. After the August 8th Morakot typhoon hit, the first item on the agenda was to form a reconstruction council. The Reconstruction Council was founded on August 15th. By the end of August, the NT$120 billion reconstruction budget had already been passed. Premier Liu Chao Hsuan of the Executive Yuan adopted the correct principle of integrating Tsu Chi, ROC Red Cross, World Vision Taiwan and other NGOs in the reconstruction projects, for private organizations to provide funding, and for the government to take care of public facilities and land use rights. Through the passing of Reconstruction Special Act, all relevant laws were able to be deregulated, so that reconstruction could proceed quickly.

He stressed that natural disasters are incontestable, and we could not stop them from happening. However human endeavors can ensure that damage is reduced to a minimum. The most important thing is to ensure people’s safety. Most recently when a typhoon hit, the army mobilized 20,000 people to assist the 2000 residents in the east and the south of Taiwan. They were moved to military camps and other temporary shelters before roads and bridges were severed. This was relatively easy. The prevention ahead of time reduced the need to save lives after the typhoon, and relief efforts became easier.

In the future, there are still over 1000 permanent houses that need to be built. The central government and local governments as well as private organizations will help those affected to rebuild their home towns. This was what the government was supposed to do, and the government will do all it can to achieve this. The greatest hope is for those residents to move in and begin to make these houses their new homes.

The initiation ceremony began with speeches by President and superiors of various levels, and then the contract signing, house ownership granting ceremony proceeded. The presents for moving in and the keys to the houses were given to the residents. The President also participated in the community’s official plaque initiation ceremony. The ceremony was simple yet solemn. The ambiance was happy and joyful. The Executive Yuan gave each resident a NT$10,000 move in gift to extend the good will of congratulations. All residents were elated. The move in ceremony concluded harmoniously as the representatives prayed to the spirits of the residences and made dumplings to symbolize harmony.