Seventeen tourists were rescued Sunday from the Gourd Valley natural waterslide in Chiayi County after they became trapped by rapidly rising water caused by heavy afternoon rains, authorities said.
The Chiayi County Fire Bureau said it received an emergency call at 4:54 p.m. and immediately dispatched 23 personnel from several local fire stations to the popular recreation area on Caoshan Stream in Fanlu Township.
Emergency services reached a collector road near Gourd Valley at 6:04 p.m. and made their way by foot into a gully, where they rescued a first group of 11 people, followed by a second group of six people at around 7:30 p.m., the fire bureau said.
Authorities said the flash flood was most likely caused by an afternoon downpour, which dumped 61 millimeters of rain on the area over a period of three hours, according to data from the Central Weather Bureau.
Chiayi County’s Gourd Valley natural waterslide is located just a few kilometers above where Caoshan Stream empties into Tsengwen Reservoir, and is unrelated to the Gourd Valley waterfall in Kaohsiung.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel