Typhoon Morakot is the deadliest typhoon for Taiwan over the past 50 years. In Taiwan, more than 600 people were killed during the period of Typhoon Morakot. Different kinds of disasters which were resulted from Typhoon Morakot occurred simultaneously. These disasters, including flood, landslides and landslide dams, are briefly explained in this paper. Simultaneous occurrences of these disasters resulted in the composite hazards. The devastation of Siaolin village is an example of the composite hazards and is described in this paper. The rainfall, which is regarded as the major cause of disasters, is compared to that of six typhoons, including Typhoon Isewan struck Japan in 1959. From the comparison, the rainfall of Typhoon Morakot is found to be high]intensity and long]duration. The extent influenced by the rainfall is large. The landslides and landslide dams in Taiwan, which are recognized using the satellite imagery, are overlapped with the isohyet. It is found that most of the landslides and the landslide dams appeared in which the values of accumulated rainfall depth are larger than 800 mm. It is concluded that the present system is not sufficient to handle such composite hazards. It is necessary to develop a comprehensive system for decision makers to handle the composite hazards.

Key wordsFTyphoon, rainfall, disaster