TAIPEI - Rescuers in eastern Taiwan pulled a man in his nineties from his flooded home, where he had been trapped for three days after a barrier lake burst during torrential rains brought by Super Typhoon Ragasa.
AFP correspondents saw the rescue unfold in Hualien, where entire streets have been buried under thick mud, with flood levels reaching the height of second-storey buildings in some areas.
At least 14 people were killed in Tuesday's disaster, 22 remained missing, and 54 were injured, the National Fire Agency said on Thursday.
Rescuers in mud-stained uniforms brought the man out on a stretcher, one of them holding a jacket over his face to shade him from the sun's glare.
The unidentified man survived on food delivered by workers but grew unwell as the floodwaters rose, said Tu Jen-yi, one of the volunteers helping rescuers navigate the area.
Tu said as he made his way through the debris that the area looked transformed.
Compounding the complexity of the rescue effort was the continuous flow of water into the town, more pronounced in low-lying areas such as Fozu Street, near where the man was rescued.
"Most of the missing are from (Fozu) street and nearby alleys," Chien Wan-yao, deputy director-general of the National Fire Agency, told AFP.
Liu Chung-hsien, an official of the Agency of Rural Development and Soil and Water Conservation, said the barrier lake was still overflowing, so the government had not lifted the alert.
"About 12 percent of the water is still left in the lake," he said.
Nearly 500 personnel from the military, fire department, coast guard and volunteer groups have been deployed to the disaster zone, where heavy machinery is being used to clear debris.