Over 2,000 soldiers belonging to the 8th Army Corps took part in relief operations Monday in Kaohsiung County's Maolin village, where some 1,500 villagers remain stranded one week after Typhoon Morakot pounded the area. The more than 2,150 soldiers, standing one next to another, relayed aid and relief supplies by hand to the villagers in the mountainous area. The long line extended more than two kilometers and crossed the riverbed of the Jhuokou River, where the Dajin Bridge once stood. Maolin township became isolated after the bridge, which connected Maolin in Kaohsiung County and Kaoshu township in Pingtung County, was destroyed by flooding and mudslides brought about by Morakot Aug. 6-10. The military deployed the troops on the labor-intensive food delivery mission after discovering it was difficult to install Bailey bridges in places on both sides of the mountain leading to Maolin where existing bridges collapsed. The first batch of foodstuffs and other materials were transported by three big trucks to the main gate of the Maolin National Scenic Area at 11 a.m. The troops immediately began delivering the supplies by hand and completed the task in just over an hour. Two more batches of aid and relief supplies donated by the public from around Taiwan will be delivered in the coming days to the stranded villagers. 