Two people died and at least 42 suffered injuries during the two earthquakes measuring 6.7 and 6.4 on the Richter scale that shook southern Taiwan on Tuesday night, the National Fire Agency confirmed yesterday.
The quakes, which were felt throughout Taiwan, were followed by a series of minor tremors, including a 5.9-magnitude aftershock at 10:30am yesterday that was felt as far north as Miaoli County and Ilan County.
Three homes collapsed and 12 fires were triggered by the quakes, the agency said.
PHOTOS: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
A mother was killed apparently trying to protect her twin sons when their four-story home collapsed in Hengchun Township (
Fang Shu-chuan (
She was found by rescuers in the ruins of the building three hours after the quake.
She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Fang's 34-year-old brother also died in the disaster. Four other family members survived.
One of the twins was seriously hurt and the other suffered minor injuries, the officials said.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday afternoon traveled to Pingtung County to visit families of the victims.
Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) and National Fire Agency Director-General Huang Chi-min (黃季敏) accompanied him at the scene.
The Cabinet yesterday donated NT$250,000 to the injured and grieving families, while private donations and local government financial assistance to quake victims totaled NT$500,000 and NT$300,000 respectively.
NGO help
The Ministry of the Interior also urged non-governmental organizations to raise money to assist quake victims and relief efforts in the hardest-hit areas in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties.
The Ministry of Education yesterday said that 134 elementary and middle schools were damaged by Tuesday's tremors.
The majority of the damaged schools were in Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties.
Ten of these have been closed because of severe structural damage, the ministry said.
"Student safety is foremost in our minds. If schools are deemed dangerous because of the damage, then students will not be allowed to enter them," Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) said yesterday during a press conference.
"Much of the damage is minor -- broken glass, fallen structures and the like. This damage will be taken care of immediately," he said.
Relief efforts
The ministry said that it would contribute NT$10 million (US$304,000) to disaster relief efforts in Pingtung County, and was evaluating how much to allocate to schools and local-level governments in addition to that amount to repair the damage.
Nuclear power officials said yesterday that the Third Nuclear Power Plant's No. 1 reactor was operating at full capacity.
The No. 2 reactor, although not posing any danger, had been stopped manually after the quakes by plant personnel as a precaution.
At press time last night, the second reactor was being reactivated after approval was granted by the Atomic Energy Council just after 5pm yesterday.
The state-owned oil refiner Chinese Petroleum Corp said yesterday that operations at a refinery in Kaohsiung had returned to normal after output was reduced for about four hours.
A boiler at the refinery in Kaohsiung automatically shut down after the earthquakes. The company is now operating at about 85 percent capacity at its three refineries, which can process a total of 720,000 barrels of crude oil a day, company vice president Tsao Mihn (
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest made-to-order chipmaker, said yesterday in a press statement that the company's operations in Hsinchu were unaffected by the quakes.
But at the company's Tainan site, TSMC said it had halted operation of several pieces of equipment to protect materials and to conduct inspections, but production lines quickly resumed.
Geologists have warned that more and perhaps stronger earthquakes may follow.
"The stratum [where the epicenter is located] has accumulated too much stress, and this is unusual," said Hongey Chen (陳宏宇), a geology professor at National Taiwan University. "The stress has now been released. What concerns us is that it might induce a hidden source of energy inside the layers."
Wen Kuo-liang (溫國樑), a chief researcher at the National Center for Research Earthquake Engineering, said it was difficult to determine whether stronger earthquakes would occur in the near future.
He said a 5-magnitude earthquake had occurred near the epicenter of the first quake four years ago.
However, no quake of such magnitude had struck the area in the past 100 years, he said.
According to the Central Weather Bureau, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Hengchun in 1959.
The bureau said yesterday that the earthquake was triggered by movement between the Eurasia and Philippine tectonic plates.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
RSS