Fruit, flowers and incense paper were laid on a table yesterday, as authorities prepared a ceremony before demolishing a precariously tilting building that has become a symbol of Taiwan’s biggest quake in 25 years.
The glass-fronted Uranus building in Hualien is a 10-story mix of shops and apartments that has stood for about 40 years.
Wednesday’s earthquake, which Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring center measured at magnitude 7.2, while the US Geological Service put it at 7.4, caused it to tilt at a 45-degree angle, its twisted exterior becoming one of the most recognizable images to emerge from the disaster.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
By yesterday, authorities said they would start taking it apart, first preparing a table of offerings in front of the building to ensure a smooth demolition and to “soothe the lost souls” of those killed in the quake.
Chips, instant noodles, bottles of soda and folded piles of paper money for the dead were set alongside baskets of flowers and a container holding incense sticks.
“[We] offer sacrifices and pray for blessing for the demolition work of the Uranus building,” an announcer said over a loudspeaker.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Traditional cultural rites like blessing a new home or providing offerings to spirits after buying land are commonplace in Taiwan.
Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) and other officials wearing construction vests each lit a joss stick and bowed to the building.
“The Uranus was built in 1986. All structures age due to time, earthquakes and many other conditions,” she told reporters.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, REUTERS
“We hope to complete the demolition within two weeks so Hualien people can return to their regular lives,” Hsu said.
Workers then began using a pink crane to smash the glass windows covering the building’s exterior, revealing the inner brick facade as rain started to drizzle.
By about 1pm, a severe aftershock hit the city, alarming the construction team as the building appeared to lean more perilously forward.
Accelerating the process, workers began inserting giant metal bars to stabilize the structure.
Inside an exposed upper-story floor, a piano could be seen lying on its side, surrounded by debris from an apartment damaged by the massive tremor.
So far, at least 12 people are known to have died from the quake, with more than 1,100 injured, although authorities have not specified the severity of the injuries.
Hundreds remain stranded around Taroko National Park, some in a hostel, others in a luxury hotel, on local hiking trails and a school cut off by landslides.
A network of tunnels traverses the region, with key roads leading to the park now blocked by falling rocks. Rescue teams have been mobilized from all over Taiwan to look for those still missing.
“Rescuers are not giving up, as the search continues in the mountains for earthquake survivors,” vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said, calling them the “true heroes of a resilient Taiwan.”
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