Eastern and northern Taiwan were rocked by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake at 11:50pm on Tuesday night, which killed at least five people. injured 254 and badly damaged at least four buildings in Hualien.
The Central Weather Bureau said the quake’s epicenter was 18.3km northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 10km, which is relatively shallow.
The impact of the temblor was strengthened by its high intensity in certain areas, with Hualien City and Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳) registering a level of 7 — the highest on the nation’s 7-tier intensity scale.
Photo: Paul Yang, AFP
The US Geological Survey measured the quake’s magnitude at 6.4, and said it was the result of oblique strike-slip faulting at shallow depth near the plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and Eurasia plates in Taiwan’s northeast coast.
The Central Weather Bureau said the intensity of Tuesday night’s quake and the number of its foreshocks and aftershocks are higher than have ever been recorded in the region. It warned that more aftershocks are to be expected, while big temblors are also possible.
Between the magnitude 6.0 temblor on Tuesday and 1pm yesterday 150 aftershocks were recorded, including four that were magnitude 5.0 or higher, bureau data showed.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
As of yesterday afternoon, the Central Emergency Operations Center said 224 people had been rescued and 88 remained unaccounted for.
Four of the dead were found in the partially collapsed Yun Men Tsui Ti (雲門翠堤), a residential/commercial building that includes a restaurant and a backpacker’s hostel, while the other one was an employee at the Marshal Hotel (統帥大飯店).
Dozens of people were rescued overnight with ropes and ladders from the 12-story Yun Men Tsui Ti, which is tilting at 40˚ angle.
Photo: EPA-EFE /Presidential Office
Thirty-nine people with household registrations in the building are unaccounted for, as well as 17 people staying in the hostel on the first to third floors of the building.
Rescuers were working yesterday to reach two more employees of the Marshal Hotel trapped in the building who had earlier responded to search teams.
Authorities said the injured included Chinese, Czech, Japanese, Singaporean and South Korean nationals.
Photo: Paul Yang, AFP
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited Hualien yesterday morning to inspect the rescue operations and visit with the survivors.
Many of the streets in Hualien City, which has a population of about 100,000 people, were buckled by the force of the quake.
A Hualien resident who lives near the Yun Men Tsui Ti told Agence France-Presse he had seen the building partially collapse.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
“I saw the first floor sink into the ground. Then it sank and tilted further and the fourth floor became the first floor,” the wire agency quoted Lu Chih-son, 35, as saying.
Tuesday night’s earthquake came on the two-year anniversary of the magnitude 6.4 quake that struck southern Taiwan, toppling the Weiguan Jinlong residential complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康).
A total of 116 were killed in the 2016 temblor.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS