A Keelung resident is left with nothing after torrential rain brought by two recent tropical storms led to a landslide that toppled her home. At one point the woman even thought she would have to compensate the city for damage her home caused to the road, but the mayor today assured her this was not the case. 

Work continued for a third day on this collapsed home sprawled across Beining Road in Keelung. The city sent four excavators to assist in demolition. Only debris remains of the two-story house; the family’s property trapped in the wreckage. 

Chen-Liu Bao-feng
Homeowner
All of our money, our cash, everything, and this home are here. Tens of millions of NT dollars.

Chen-Liu Bao-feng bought this home, located beside Bisha Harbor, four decades ago, when it was little more than a small wooden shack. Twenty years ago she rebuilt it into a villa. After the home collapsed, reports emerged that the city’s maintenance department asked Chen to sign an affidavit pledging to pay all repair costs.

Chen-Liu Bao-feng
Homeowner
(The city government) asked us to pay for the repairs. It wanted compensation. Yesterday it produced an official document asking me to pay for the damage you see to the road today.

Mayor Chang Tong-rong visited the disaster site a second time today. He told the homeowner that there was a misunderstanding, and no compensation would be needed. But the city government considers the structure to be illegal, so Chen is prohibited from rebuilding on the same site.

Chen-Liu Bao-feng
Homeowner
I’m a disaster victim. I have all these troubles, yet they still want to rub salt into my wounds.

For now, Chen is living in an apartment owned by the Coast Guard. The Keelung City government says the only support it can give her is subsidies of approximately NT$230,000.