TAIPEI, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's agriculture suffered a loss of about 12.2 billion New Taiwan dollars (370.5 million U.S. dollars) in Typhoon Morakot as of Sunday morning, said the island's agriculture department.
The loss included crops with a worth of 4 billion New Taiwan dollars, livestock
and poultry 1.39 billion, aquatic produce 4.13billion
and forest 77.42 million, the department said in a statement.
In addition, damages to farming, livestock
and fishing infrastructure amounted to 2.64 billion NT dollars, the statement said.
In the worst typhoon in the past 50 years, 124 people were confirmed dead
and 56 were missing as of Saturday evening.
Taiwan has asked the mainland for help. In a letter to the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits(ARATS) on Saturday, the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) hoped the mainland could provide manual
and automatic sterilizing machines, blankets
and sleeping
bags.
ARATS officials have pledged to send those materials to Taiwan as soon as possible.