Quake of the century

At Nantou, the number of bodies ferried by helicopter to waiting ambulances from Puli and surrounding areas painted a cataclysmic picture.

The corpses quickly swamped hospital morgues and staff began laying the dead by the roadside taped up in blue plastic sheets. Power shortages meant even those bodies in morgues soon began to decay in the 27 degree heat.

Frantic survivors tried to peer through the colored wrapping as they searched for missing family members. Ambulances rushed past in a constant file, ferrying fresh victims.

At the end of a line of bodies, a family gathered around one corpse and rocked back and forth on their knees, murmuring Taoist prayers over offerings of ghost money for the dead to take with them.

Work was impeded by a lack of supplies and replacements for weary rescue teams as the night wore on.

Travelling with a 30-member team from the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association, on a rescue mission with a small group of doctors, a Taipei Times reporter witnessed attempts to pull victims from a damaged building in the Nantou town of Tunghsi.

But the work was hampered by a lack of heavy machinery, as well as continuing aftershocks that made working in the wreckage very dangerous.

One injured man said the earthquake had caught him by surprise, having been woken from slumber in a traditional farm house -- a "si he yuan (四合院)" -- which collapsed in a hail of beams and heavy bricks on top of him.

Lin Yun-feng (林雲風) was crushed, held in his house for 20 minutes until a neighbor came and dragged him out. Fortunately, he emerged with only bruises on his back and legs, in much better condition than his neighbors.

In the town, virtually every building appeared to have suffered some structural damage.