After Typhoon Danas struck Taiwan, Tzu Chi helped restore over a hundred roofs. Racing against time and making the most of every spell of good weather, repair teams brought smiles to disadvantaged residents—a reminder that after the rain, the sky always clears.
When It Rains, It Pours
Blue-and-white striped tarps, like giant bandages, temporarily cover roofs damaged by Typhoon Danas in Xiliao, along the coast of Qigu District, Tainan. Debris from homes, collected in white nylon bags, is set aside on open ground. Tzu Chi volunteers arrived in Xiliao just two days after the typhoon to provide initial support, followed by emergency cash and tarps. After three weeks of intermittent wind and rain, the second phase of relief began, with professional contractors enlisted to repair the roofs of vulnerable households.
Insulated corrugated panels and other roofing materials were stacked in front of a temple in Dingshan, Qigu District, Tainan City. On August 5, 2025, teams of three lifted C-channels—each four to five feet long—from the stacks onto their shoulders and carried them into narrow lanes.
Suddenly, the sky opened. Scattered raindrops gave way to a heavy downpour, shrouding the scene in a white haze. The volunteers from Kaohsiung hadn’t had time to put on raincoats, and soon their clothes—down even to their socks—were soaked. They ducked under a resident’s canopy, as the rain was too intense to continue working. The homeowner didn’t seem to mind, and they exchanged smiles and a simple greeting.
Surprisingly, no one spoke of the sudden storm that had driven them to seek shelter. It was as if everyone was accustomed to such moments—like fishermen at sea who take the waves as they come.
Contractors joining volunteers
Just a week before, a group of people had gathered early one morning at the Fishermen’s Activity Center in Xiliao, also located in Qigu District. Most were Tzu Chi volunteers from Kaohsiung. The center, serving as a temporary service hub, buzzed with activity as the team prepared to repair the roofs of three old homes damaged by Typhoon Danas, which had devastated Tainan City and Chiayi County in early July.
Volunteers had begun arriving at the activity center by 8 a.m. Some prepared breakfast and invited everyone to eat, while others handled the day’s tasks. After everyone had gathered, Pan Ji-li (潘機利), coordinator of the Tzu Chi Kaohsiung Disaster Response Center, and Wu Zong-hua (吳宗樺), deputy coordinator, thanked the team for coming. Pan reminded them: “Please don’t take risks. There is a site supervisor, and we respect the supervisor’s authority. Volunteers mustn’t climb onto the roofs.”
The volunteers then formed two neat lines and walked to one of the homes scheduled for repairs. Two skilled workers from Yuanxing Engineering were already on the roof, with a one-story-high scaffold set up beside it. Once the volunteers arrived, work to remove the remaining roof tiles began. The workers carefully passed intact tiles down to volunteers on the ground, who carried them to the homeowner’s storage room.
Pan explained that volunteers had reached out through their personal networks to bring in professional contractors so they could tackle the repairs together. With damaged roofs causing serious inconvenience for residents, speed was essential—often, several houses had to be worked on at the same time.
Unfortunately, the weather was rarely on their side. The outer circulations of Typhoon Co-may and Tropical Storm Francisco had strengthened southwesterly airflows, bringing frequent rainstorms to southern Taiwan. Such heavy rain made it unsafe to work with electricity or on rooftops. Even so, whenever the rain eased or stopped, volunteers rushed to resume repairs.
As the work continued, the number of households willing to accept Tzu Chi’s help steadily grew. Moved by the foundation’s sincerity and reassured by the use of quality roofing materials, more residents signed up. The number of homes in Xiliao quickly expanded from single digits to more than 30.
“We are responsible for two neighborhoods in Qigu District: Xiliao and Dingshan,” said Pan. The Kaohsiung team, with extensive experience in repair work, took on the more severely affected areas while coordinating both frontline labor and administrative tasks.
