On the seventh of August, Typhoon Morakot brought its copious rainfall to the southern Taiwan with the rainfall amount up to 2,965 mm recorded in Alishan. This record breaking rainfall, combined with untimely high tides, kept the water ever rising, gradually building into a catastrophe. There were 699 deaths and missing, and over 8,000 left homeless. Six major highways were seriously damaged and several isolated islands in high mountain area were formed under the torrential rains. After the assessments of safety of townships and villages in high mountain areas, half of villages lived by indigenous people were ranked as unsafe in 90 sites investigation. A large scale relocation program for refugees was developed to provide a safer living environment with the join efforts of government and NGOs.

In order to deal with the recovery and reconstruction of the Morakot disaster, the government took the immediate measures to face the challenges. Morakot Typhoon Post-Disaster Reconstruction Special Act was approved by Congress on August 28 and declared by the President on August 29, 2009. The Act was used as the amendment to the "Disaster Prevention and Protection Law". The Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council of Executive Yuan was formed on September 12, 2009. The budget for the reconstruction plan is NT$ 120 billion and was declared by the President on Nov. 20, 2009. Another NT$ 35 billion was added from reallocated annual budget for immediate relief.

There were four reconstruction plans developed including regional reconstruction plan with land conservation guidelines, civil infrastructure reconstruction plan?community reconstruction plan & industry reconstruction plan. The plan was developed follows the rule of respecting the nature, escaping from disaster, river basin integration and land conservation as the foresight action. This lecture will present the efforts Taiwan has devoted in the first year after the typhoon. The reconstruction strategies, actions, and execution results will be introduced in this lecture.