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On Monday noon, the manager for a sediment control dam project along Matai’an Creek in Hualien got washed away in the rain, just as he was driving to the site to evacuate a number of operators. He had only headed out when he suddenly called for help and became unreachable. Rescuers were notified and immediately began searching for him, but only found his off-road vehicle. Only after 9 p.m. was he spotted by a resident of a nearby village. With thermal imaging, he was eventually located and rescued, at almost 5 a.m. the next day.
A thermal imaging camera on a drone captured this thermogram of a person lying on a boulder.
The man, covered in mud, was pulled up onto a life raft. He seems to be conscious still. This is a site manager for Matai’an Creek’s post-disaster reconstruction. He had been missing for 15 hours.
Lu Yen-jung
Hualien County Fire Department
We saw an area with a high thermal gradient. As the device got closer and closer, the red dot gradually took the form of a human, which made us sure that it was the missing person over there.
On Monday afternoon, as water levels surged amid the rain, the site manager for a contracted improvement project along Matai’an Creek got washed away with his off-road vehicle just as he was heading over to the site to pick up excavator operators. He’d called for help on the walkie-talkie and became unreachable shortly after being on the road.
Rescuers initially traced his tracks downstream, where they’d found his vehicle. The car key was still on the switch, and his phone was still inside, but he was nowhere to be found.
At nine in the evening, he was finally spotted by a resident of Atomo. The young man had heard him crying for help and saw him stranded on a boulder. However, it took another six to seven hours for rescuers to wade through the shoal and get him out, at 4:39 a.m. the following day.
Voice of local resident
Atomo
I heard someone crying for help. It came from a distance. Once they were sure that someone was yelling, they went down to the shoal. He responded with calls of “Help me! Help!” They went back and forth about a dozen times before the voices stopped.
Hsu Tzu-herng
Head of ER, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital
He has scratches and bruises all over the body, from the muddy water and sediments. He also has mild cerebral hemorrhage from impact. We referred him to a neurosurgeon, who will check on him as he remains in hospital care.
There’s nearly 10km in distance between where he was reported missing and where he was rescued, after 15 hours of grueling struggle in the open.
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