On July 22, four people working in the bed of shallow Pachang Creek in Chiayi County died after getting trapped by a flash flood and waiting in vain for three hours to be rescued. The incident was witnessed live on television by an audience estimated at over 10 million, or nearly half the population of Taiwan. Premier Tang Fei later offered to resign to take responsibility for the fiasco, but President Chen Shui-bian refused his resignation, citing a need for political stability. The resignation of Vice Premier Yu Shyi-kun, however, has been approved, and so far 13 other officials have been reprimanded. The general public is more interested, however, in knowing how the government's emergency system could have failed so badly, and when the new administration will starting performing up to people's expectations.
While the four victims huddled together against the raging torrent, calls for assistance went out to the National Fire Administration (NFA), the National Police Administration (NPA), and the Air Force, which one after the other failed to respond. In some cases it was a lack of personnel or the proper equipment. In other instances, however, organizations refused to dispatch rescue teams on the grounds that they lacked the necessary jurisdiction. A wave of indignation broke across the island following the deaths, with people criticizing the government for everything from incompetence to callous disregard for life.
A flurry of finger pointing ensued. The NFA blamed the Air Force's Seagull search and rescue unit and the NPA's Airborne Squadron for refusing requests for assistance. The military search and rescue center explained that the police Airborne Squadron should be held responsible for normal rescue operations at locations below 2500 meters above sea level. The Airborne Squadron, for its part, said its rescue unit was based too far away from the scene of the emergency, and that the rescue operation should have been handled by the Seagull rescue unit, located less than five minutes away by air. Both the Airborne Squadron and the Seagull unit agreed, in the meantime, that the local fire units had come in too late with their calls for assistance. The spectacle of these different organizations arguing over who was to blame only heightened the public's indignation.
Most infuriating of all, the cabinet did not respond to the incident at all until Premier Tang Fei called an emergency news conference the following day and admitted that the government's emergency response system had failed. Government spokesperson Chung Chin took partial responsibility for the cabinet's slow response, explaining that she had seen the incident on television later that night but didn't inform the premier because he is recovering from a recent operation and needs rest.
A special three-hour cabinet meeting was held on the morning of July 24 to review how the emergency was handled, and reprimands were meted out to 13 government officials, including Ding Yuan-chin (NPA director-general), General Chen Horng-i (NFA director-general), Yang Te-hui (NPA Airborne Squadron commander), and General Hu Chen-pu (assistant deputy chief of the General Staff for Operations, Ministry of National Defense). Tang Fei also phoned President Chen Shui-bian to offer his resignation, which the president rejected, but the resignation of Vice Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who was serving concurrently as chairman of the Council of Disaster Prevention, has been accepted. The resignations of NPA chief Ding Yuan-chin and NFA chief Chen Horng-i are pending as this article goes to press.
President Chen apologized to the families of the victims on July 25 and ordered that two helicopters from the Seagull unit assigned to the Office of the President be returned immediately to the Seagull unit. Frank Hsieh, chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), stated that the DPP was prepared to take equal responsibility for the incident along with the new administration. The State Public Prosecutor General's Office has instructed the Chiayi District Prosecutor's Office to investigate the incident to determine whether there was any criminal negligence on the part of public officials.
The nation's emergency response system was criticized roundly last year for numerous inadequacies exposed by the earthquake of September 21, and the Pachang Creek incident has once again shown the system in an unfavorable light. Lack of a proper legal framework for the government's emergency response apparatus resulted in a great deal of chaos in both rescue and reconstruction efforts after last year's quake. All that bumbling is still quite fresh in memory, and now the system has come under fire again just one month after passage of the Disaster Prevention and Relief Act by the Legislative Yuan. The Pachang Creek incident shows that the government has not yet made the changes required by the new law. In particular, there is a lack of coordination between different elements of the emergency rescue system. The legal system is now in place, but it is not backed up by an effective system. Tang Fei has announced that an integrated emergency response system will be established, and the first step toward this goal was taken at noon on July 24 when the military search and rescue center was upgraded to a cabinet-level agency.
In the government's defense, the situation at Pachang Creek required a more complicated rescue operation than most people imagine. According to Pan Hsiu-ming, a diving instructor who participated in rescue operations after the 1990 sinking of a cruise boat in Sun Moon Lake, a full-scale rescue effort on July 22 would have required the presence of divers, boats, and people working their way to the victims by rope. In fact, says Pan, just sending in a helicopter would have been a mistake. For one thing, the rainy weather that day would have limited a pilot's vision, and for another, the strong downdraft from the chopper blades could very easily have knocked the victims from their precarious foothold. The best option would have been to launch several rubber dinghies to make the rescue. The Central Police University currently offers training in some water rescue techniques, but does not have a diving course. The lack of rescue personnel trained in all phases of water rescue was another factor delaying the Pachang Creek operation. "It looks like Central Police University, local fire departments, and Taiwan's various rescue units all have to improve training in this area."
Just two months into the president's tenure, a single botched rescue operation has made the new administration the object of public wrath that has already cost the vice premier his job and may very well force the resignation of other high-ranking officials before the dust has settled. A China Times editorial argued that the new administration's ability to govern should not be measured by its performance in specific policy decisions, such as stabilizing the stock market or resolving the dispute over what percentage of central government revenues should go to various local governments; rather, it is reflected in how well the government carries out its day-to-day administrative tasks, including emergency rescue operations.
The tragedy of Pachang Creek has seared into people's minds a frightening image of incompetence on the part of the government, and the latter will have to do everything possible to fix the ills in its emergency rescue system so that needless loss of life will not happen again. That is the least the government can do for the souls of the departed victims, and it must be done to regain the confidence of the people.
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Four workers, stranded by a flash flood in the Pachang River for three hours while rescue services dithered, were finally washed away to their deaths. (reproduced courtesy of TVBS)
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