Parents of children who attend two of Taipei's schools located on suspected faults remain unconvinced of their children's safety, despite briefings from geologists and reassurances from city officials.
City officials and councilors visited Taoyuan Elementary School (
Damage to buildings in these schools was not as bad as one would have imagined, school principals said. Yao Jung-hua (
The current buildings, completed in 1996 and designed to withstand quakes measuring up to 6.0 on the Richter scale, were left undamaged by the 921 quake, Yao said.
The city government, meanwhile, is to spend around NT$250 million to repair quake-damaged buildings in more than 55 schools in Taipei, said David Lee (
But teachers in the two schools still expressed concern. Yao said he was aware of two facts regarding the Chinshan fault line (
"The second states that nobody can tell the exact location of the fault line, or when and where a quake will hit," he said.
But the principal said yesterday's report by Wang Chien-ying (
Studies have shown that the Chinshan-Shanchuao-Hsinchuang fault line (
"While the Hsinchuang fault has been inactive for a long time, and its unlikely to move in the near future, the Chinshan fault shifted about 300 years ago, a very worrying fact," Wang said.
Data collected from the Central Geological Survey, directed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, indicates that the four fault lines that pass through the city -- the Chinshan-Shanchuao-Hsinchuang fault (
When asked by Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"So far, the four fault lines are defined [by experts] as `suspected,' meaning no past documented evidence can confirm the status of the faults," Ma said. "So the public shouldn't worry unduly."
City Councilor Lai Su-ru (賴素|p), who last Sunday talked to parents of children who attend Taoyuan Elementary School, said briefings laden with jargon from geology experts weren't of much help.
"The city government should assure these parents that their school is completely safe. Otherwise [the parents] say they will remove their children," Lai said.
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