The incredible forces of Typhoon Morakot are still being felt days after it dumped more than 80 inches of rain and caused torrential flooding in Taiwan before it moved on. Internet service disruptions in parts of Asia and outages in Taiwan from Typhoon Morakot are ongoing, after the typhoon forces caused deep undersea landslides that severed at least three undersea fiber-optic telecommunications cables and have disrupted communications on several others.

Undersea fiber optic cables carry most of the world's Internet and communications traffic and are subject to earth movement, quakes and deep sea landslides which can disrupt communications and damage the cables, particularly in this region which forms part of the geological volcanic area known as the ring of fire.

The cable that connects to Taiwan known as SWM-3 (Southeast Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3) was the first hit by undersea landslides on August 9th, and additional undersea landslides have since severed cables APCN and APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network).  The APCN cable breaks are affecting Internet and telecom connectivity to China and parts of Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines. Taiwan’s biggest telecommunications provider, Chunghwa Telecom, announced that it had restored some service by using backup systems and rerouting traffic through other cables and telecom providers.

Additional cables damaged by undersea slides were EAC (C2C Cable Network East Asia Crossing, C2C (C2C Cable Network) and FLAG (Fiber Optic Link around The Globe) North Asia Loop (FNAL). Chunghwa indicated that it had sent workers to the area to assess the extent of the damage and commence repairs, but was unsure yet when the cables might be fully repaired.  Chunghwa was said to be working with other telecom service providers to reroute communications traffic on their undamaged cables. Due to the rerouting and shared load, Chunghwa said that service for Internet and telecommunications might be significantly slowed at times.

Hundreds of people are expected to have perished in Taiwan alone from Typhoon Morakot, but due to limited communications with rescue personnel and the desperate search for survivors more accurate numbers are not available.