Villagers who survived the destruction of Siaolin village in Kaohsiung County went back to the site of the destroyed village Saturday to pay tribute to the hundreds of villagers buried under mud and debris. Five days after last Friday's disaster, Kaohsiung Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing had said that some 300 villagers were still missing and that rescue teams reckoned there was no hope of finding anyone else alive. Following the folk custom in which the spirits of the deceased should be comforted on the seventh day of their departure, families of the victims prepared slippers and food for the dead on their journey to the other world. While the heartbroken villagers prayed that the bodies dead will not be disturbed, Yang agreed to investigate the possibility of establishing a memorial park on the site of Siaolin, a river valley scenic spot. Siaolin was not the only village in the county to be devastated as a result of Typhoon Morakot. Hundreds of residents of Liukuei village were also still missing, and rescuers have turned from rescuing survivors to unearthing corpses. Although there were still hundreds of villagers in remote mountain regions facing the threat of further mudslides, the presence of the police and military had somewhat alleviated their fear of being cut off again. Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou, who visited the damaged village of Shuili in Nantou County Saturday, apologized for the government's failure to do a quicker and better job. He said that there were limitations and difficulties, while the rainy weather had delayed the evacuation of isolated villagers. He elaborated that in the first four days following the disaster, only 1,500 villagers were rescued because bad weather restricted the operations of the helicopters. As the weather improved, however, 4,700 villagers were evacuated over the following two days. To help residents in the devastated areas clean up and resettle the homeless, cadets from military schools and the police academy had also been mobilized, in addition to volunteers from religious and social welfare groups. 