Landslide at Mt. Alishan area (by Mr. Hsiung from Lulin Obs.)

I got a sad email from Lulin Observatory's director Hung-Chin Lin on September 9 reporting Typhoon Morakot's destructions at central Taiwan and affectiveness at Lulin Observatory. Morakot, a Catagory-2 typhoon, hit Taiwan around August 8 and caused about 700 fatalities and a damage of $443,000,000. According to Lin, who quoted the report from local transpotation and electrical authorities, the only two roads to Lulin (Provincial Road No. 21 and No. 18, including electricity and communication lines) both suffered "very serious" damages due to lots of landslides along the way and a fully recover may require 1-2 years at least. The observatory staffs were stucked for 10 days at the observatory until being rescued by helicopters. Thankfully, the observatory itself does not suffer major damages, but Lin suggests it will take more than two months to get the telescope working again, and it may take at least a year to get things back to normal.

I have upload a few images of the road conditions, copyrighted by those who took them.

Updated Sept. 19: I noted Dr. Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society has monitored this post at her Twitter -- thanks for her attention. I may added a few introductions of Lulin Observatory for new-comers. Lulin Observatory is the only observatory in Taiwan that with fully operation on both research and education. It's also where Lulin Sky Survey (once had been the only asteroid program in East Asia/Western Pacific) and Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) conducted. Astronomers should be familiar with one of  its best-known discoveries -- Comet Lulin (the naked-eye comet in early 2009). I'm no longer with Lulin Sky Survey as it had been terminated about six months ago, but I do keep contact with the friendly faculties and staffs there since the excellent collaboration we made over the last three years and occasionary use the 1-m telescope there to do some research on asteroids. The newest report I got this weekend is that the observatory can be accessed by staffs again since an emergency way has just been completed.