After forming as a tropical depression over the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 km east of the Philippines on August 2nd, Typhoon Morakot built in power and moved quickly west. Over the past several days, the storm has passed over the Philippines, Taiwan and Mainland China, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage due to high winds, flooding and mudslides. Southeast China evacuated nearly 1 million people ahead of the storm, after Morakot broke many records in Taiwan, dumping a total of 2.5 meters (100 inches) of rain on the island. At least 40 people are known to have died so far, but hundreds remain missing - many from one village in Taiwan, reportedly engulfed by a mudslide during the storm.
Flood waters brought by Typhoon Morakot submerge a house in Chiatung, Pingtung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)
An elderly man is carried from a helicopter to a high school in Chishan, in Taiwan's Kaohsiung county on August 10, 2009 after being airlifted from the southern village of Shiao Lin. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
ater flows past a severely eroded embankment near a damaged bridge that previously linked Pingtung and Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan on August 9, 2009. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)
A man stands on a roof as he awaits rescue in heavy flooding in Taimali, south-eastern Taiwan's Taitung county on August 8, 2009 during Typhoon Morakot. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
A hotel building leans before falling in a heavily flooded river after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county, Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. The six-story hotel collapsed and plunged into the river Sunday morning after floodwaters eroded its base - all 300 people in the hotel had been evacuated and uninjured, officials said. (AP Photo / AP Photo/ETTV Television)
A woman, taking shelter from Typhoon Morakot, rests in a temporary evacuation centre in Chiatung, in southern Taiwan's Pingtung county on August 9, 2009. (PATRICK LIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Rescuers are seen before a Taoist temple inundated in floodwaters brought by Typhoon Morakot in Chiatung, southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)
A girl is carried out from mudslide caused by Typhoon Morakot in Chiashien, Kaohsiung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 10, 2009. (PATRICK LIN/AFP/Getty Images)
A massive landslide is seen across a mountain road in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. (AP Photo)
A storm-damaged bridge in Chiashien, southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county, seen on August 10, 2009. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
Evacuees sit on top of a military vehicle as rescuers search the flooded area for people after rains brought by Typhoon Morakot inundated the area in Chiatung, Pingtung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009. (PATRICK LIN/AFP/Getty Images)
An aerial view of flooding caused by Typhoon Morakot in Chiatung, Taiwan. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
A distraught woman waits for word of her missing father from Shiao Lin village, which was covered in a landslide from Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan, at a rescue landing zone on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. (AP Photo)
A railroad bridge damaged by Typhoon Morakot is seen in Taitung, eastern Taiwan August 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Stringer)
Driftwood and debris fills Fugang Harbor after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county, eastern Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. (AP Photo)
A man carries a baby as a family is rescued from flooding brought by Typhoon Morakot in Chiatung, Pingtung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009. (PATRICK LIN/AFP/Getty Images)
A man trapped by floods gestures at rescuers delivering food and drinking water after Typhoon Morakot hit Pingtung county, southern Taiwan August 9, 2009. (REUTERS/Pichi Chuang)
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A collapsed apartment block lies on a river bed in Taimali, in southeast Taiwan's Taitung county on August 10, 2009. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
Two women hold each other in a local emergency room after being rescued by helicopter from a village covered in a landslide from Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan, Monday. Aug. 10, 2009. (AP Photo)
