Work began early Friday to evacuate residents living along the Laonong River in a mountainous area of northern Kaohsiung County out of fear that a big barrier lake created by mudslides and torrents over the past week could burst at any minute. Rock- and mudslides as a result of the extreme torrential rain triggered by Typhoon Morakot have created choked-up lakes of various sizes in areas along the river, with the largest one covering some 6 hectares, according to the Kaohsiung County Emergency Operation Center. Fearing that the lake could burst at any minute, rescue officials alerted residents of Taoyuan, Baolai and Liouguei townships, warning them to prepare for evacuation. Meanwhile, helicopters had made 32 sorties as of 10 a.m. that day to airlift supplies to stranded villagers in these townships and ferry people to safety. Over 400 flood victims had been carried out of their mud-encased homes as of that morning. Further south in Pingtung County, more than 200 villagers in Wutai township -- one of the hardest-hit of the county's townships -- had been airlifted to safety as of 11 a.m. that day, with some 100 more awaiting additional helicopter sorties. However, some 250 residents of Wutai village, the most densely settled part of the township, refused to be evacuated as the weather had cleared and the rain had subsided. At a senior high school in Neipu village, members of 10 volunteer or charity organizations who had been there for several days to console the evacuees, were continuing their efforts to cheer up the flood victims, playing with the children and offering career or medical consultations to the adults. Meanwhile, Taitung county officials called a halt to a mass evacuation plan for villagers stranded in three villages on the banks of the Taimali River. The evacuation plan, drawn up the night before, was called off after a group of specialists got a bird's-eye view from a helicopter of a giant barrier lake that had been created over the past several days in the Baosheng community, located about 24 km west of the coastal township of Taimali. The specialists said that the 'crisis had been defused' as the water level of the new lake was much lower than the previous day. Taitung Deputy Magistrate Peng Teh-cheng said that evacuation plans would be halted temporarily while work to repair the South-Link Railway and the South- Link Highway should be resumed immediately. 