Taiwan

Taiwan Earthquake some of the destroyed structures had their ground floors crushed and were slanted at dangerous degrees.

Earthquake in Taiwan Today — Following Taiwan’s worst earthquake in 25 years, which sent rocks and dirt flying down mountainsides and blocked highways, rescuers attempted to reach hundreds of people who were stranded while searching for missing persons on Thursday. Over 1,000 people were hurt, and 10 people lost their lives.

One day earlier, a strong earthquake hit during the morning rush hour, sending families running out of their flats through the windows and youngsters running outside. Some buildings’ ground floors fell, leaving them slanting at dangerous angles. Authorities did not issue the normal cautions because they were anticipating a smaller tremor, even though the island is frequently shaken by earthquakes and is usually well-prepared.

Intense earthquake strikes Taiwan

• Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in a quarter century rocked the island just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

Although the main road connecting Hualien County, near the epicenter, to Taipei, the nation’s capital, remained closed on Thursday afternoon, and some 200 people of the county were placed in temporary shelters, most aspects of daily life in Taiwan have resumed. According to the Central News Agency, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., one of the major producers of computer chips worldwide, opened up most of its activities, and some local rail service to Hualien was restored.

There were around 1,100 injuries from the earthquake. At least four of the ten fatalities occurred inside Taroko National Park, a popular tourist destination in the hilly Hualien region located roughly 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Taipei and known for its cliffs and canyons. Two bodies were discovered: one inside a collapsed structure and the other in the Ho Ren Quarry. From a hiking trail, rescuers also removed the body of a man who had suffered terrible wounds to his head.

Hundreds of people were stranded when rocks and mud blocked the roads leading to their hotel, campground or work site — though most were safe while they awaited rescue. It wasn’t clear Thursday if any people were still trapped in buildings.

Liu Zhong-da, a 58-year-old construction worker, and his colleague were on their way to work on a road in the national park and were inside a tunnel when the quake hit. A boulder blocked their exit and they were trapped along with some other people.

“We almost got covered up,” Liu said. “No communication could be made (to the outside world).” Liu and his colleague were rescued Thursday afternoon and received a quick medical checkup outside the park.

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About 60 workers who had been unable to leave a quarry because of damaged roads were also freed, authorities said. Six workers from another quarry were airlifted out.

Some 700 people remain cut off, the vast majority of them employees and guests at a hotel in the national park. Authorities said they were safe and had food and water, and that work to repair the roads to the hotel was nearly finished. Another 10 workers from the same hotel were stranded elsewhere in the park, after most of the others in the group were rescued or managed to walk out.

Authorities said they were unable to contact about 15 people, and their condition was not known. Numbers have fluctuated frequently as authorities have learned of more people in trouble and rescued others.

Taiwan Earthquake History

The strongest quake recorded each day of at least a 5.0 magnitude since April 1990.

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In the city of Hualien on Thursday, workers used an excavator to stabilize the base of a damaged building, as chickens pecked among potted plants on the flat roof slanting at a severe angle.

Mayor Hsu Chen-wei previously said 48 residential buildings were damaged in the quake. Hendri Sutrisno, a 30-year-old professor at Hualien Dong Hwa University, spent Wednesday night in a tent inside a shelter with his wife and baby, fearing aftershocks.

“We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet. And then we’re staying here ever since to assess the situation,” he said.

Others also said they didn’t dare to go home because the walls of their apartments were cracked or they lived on higher floors. Taiwanese Premier Chen Chien-jen visited some earthquake evacuees in the morning at a temporary shelter.

The earthquake was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years, measured at magnitude 7.4 by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Huang Shiao-en was in her apartment when the quake struck. “At first the building was swinging side to side, and then it shook up and down,” she said.

The Central Weather Administration recorded more than 400 aftershocks from Wednesday morning into Thursday night. The national legislature and sections of Taipei’s main airport suffered minor damage.

Hualien was last struck by a deadly quake in 2018 which killed 17 people and brought down a historic hotel. Taiwan’s worst recent earthquake struck on Sept. 21, 1999, a magnitude 7.7 temblor that caused 2,400 deaths, injured around 100,000, and destroyed thousands of buildings.