Twelve more victims of typhoon Morakot were confirmed in Taiwan Friday, raising the death toll to 153, local disaster response authorities said.
The authorities also reported 464 missing, 24 more than Thursday's figure, and 45 people injured as of 1 p.m. Friday.
The heavy confirmed death tolls were in the counties of Kaohsiung at 87, Tainan with 28 and Pingtung with 21.
Rescue work is still underway at two villages in Kaohsiung where at least 506 villagers were buried in mudslides. No exact casualty figures are available.
According to the island's agriculture department, Morakot has caused 13.45 billion New Taiwan dollars (408.19 million U.S. dollars) of losses in the agriculture sector.
Morakot was the worst typhoon to hit the island in nearly 50 years, wreaking havoc across the central and southern regions.
Taiwan's authorities on Thursday proposed in a draft regulation a 100-billion-New-Taiwan-Dollar (about 3 billion U.S. dollars) budget for reconstruction in typhoon-batter areas on the island in upcoming three years.
The authorities also announced a three-day mourning for the typhoon victims on the island from Aug. 22 to 24.
According to Yang Yi, spokesman with mainland's State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, relief funds donated from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan had already totaled 781.8 million yuan (114 million U.S. dollars) as of Friday.
A star-studded television fundraiser on the mainland raised 351.4 million yuan for Taiwan's typhoon victims on Thursday night, including 330 million yuan from the mainland, 9.24 million yuan from Hong Kong and Macao, and 12.15 million from overseas donors.
On Friday, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) sent a letter to Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), saying that the mainland was willing to provide more relief materials and equipment, including civilian helicopters, to Taiwan.
The ARATS also offered to send medical and rescue teams as well as construction workers, to assist relief and reconstruction.
Three mainland technicians would reach Taiwan's Kaohsiung on Aug. 22 to help install prefabricated houses sent by the mainland, as requested by the SEF on Thursday, the ARATS said in the letter.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2009)
