Rapids

Would you risk crossing a bridge fashioned of six shoots of bamboo & some string above a raging flood to find?

your loved ones? LIUKUEI, Taiwan: Six shoots of bamboo and some string fashioned into a narrow bridge was all that was holding Wang Qiu-liang above the raging flood below. Any misstep and the powerful waters would sweep the 53-year-old away. But a week after Typhoon Morakot destroyed the concrete footbridge that linked her southern Taiwanese village Hsinfa to the outside world, Wang decided she would risk anything -- even her life -- to find her missing loved ones. "I don't care about the danger. I just want to see my people. Four members of my family have already been buried alive, and there are 10 more trapped behind there," Wang said, tears streaming down her face as she pointed to a hill across the river. On the other side, broken roads, flattened plantations and endless swathes of rubble awaited Wang, one of the first to cross the newly-built bamboo bridge. At the rickety bamboo bridge, rescue workers looked on disapprovingly, but said they could not stop the desperate villagers. "What they are doing is extremely dangerous. The mudslides can return any time if the rain on the upper river grows heavier," fireman Kevin Kuo said. "But how can we stop them from finding their relatives?" he said, filming the risky crossing with a hand-held camera "in case of more injuries or casualties." Before the bamboo bridge idea was hatched, some villagers had tried to wade across the river in bare feet. But rescuers had to be pull them from the waters as the water's rapids threatened to tear them away. Despite a week of round-the-clock rescue efforts, the 19 firemen from Tainan have been unable to figure out how to transport the stranded villagers to safety. Many dead bodies remained unfound, buried too deep in the mud, they said. The magnitude of destruction is apparent in almost every corner of Liukuei, which literally means "six turtles" and refers to the six road tunnels that lead to the township. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/china/Bamboo-bridge-links-Taiwanese-villagers-typhoon-wasteland/articleshow/4898464.cms

Public Comments

1. yes, i couldnt live with myself if i left them to die
2. Nope,I'd just get the Will read!
3. If there were no other options available then yes i would try.