Before we got into Taipei typhoon Morakot hit the island of Taiwan. Thankfully for Taipei the eye of the typhoon went directly over the city so it received some relief from the rain however the southern part of the island was not so lucky. Cities in the south received in excess of 114" of rain (over 9 feet of rain) over the course of 72 hours. Mudslides, washouts and anything catastrophic you can think of with a flood happened. The death toll is not yet confirmed as many people are still trapped in the remote villages but estimates are ranging from 500 to 2,000 depending upon which media outlet you read. We didn't see any of the impacted areas first hand but it was all over the news and media.
One of the biggest challenge facing rescue efforts is the number of roads washed out to the more remote villages is making it extremely difficult to get machinery, bulldozers specifically, into the impacted areas.
Here is a link to one of the articles from Taipei Times News
Then on top of Morakot when we were leaving Shenzhen to head to Taipei we heard of earthquakes that were hitting Japan and some of the more remote islands. If I recall the biggest was a 6.7 on the rector scale.
I'm am thinking next time I come to Asia I will try to make it any month other than June through September.