Over 100 missing, 14 dead in wake of Taiwan quake
TAINAN, Taiwan – Hundreds of Taiwanese firefighters and military personnel raced throughout the night Saturday in frigid temperatures looking for survivors trapped in collapsed buildings after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan.
At least 18 people were reported killed in the temblor, which hit hardest in the city of Tainan, authorities said.
The powerful quake ripped a 10-foot chasm in a golf course, cut off water supplies to 400,000 people and halted high-speed rail service to the southern half of the island just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
As of early Sunday, Tainan authorities said 132 people remained unaccounted for. At least 12 of those confirmed dead were residents of one collapsed 17-story building.
Rescuers on Sunday found signs of life within the remains of the Wei Guan residential complex. Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te said in TV interviews from the site of the building collapse that life-detecting equipment had found signs of life from at least 29 trapped people.
Rescuers using backhoes and other heavy equipment have helped hundreds of people out of danger – more than 260 of them from the ruins of the Wei Guan complex. Authorities said at least 484 people had been injured in the quake, but many of them suffered only minor wounds.
Three children, including a 10-day-old girl, were among the dozen residents killed when the building collapsed. At least 10 other buildings fell during the temblor.
Wu Ching-Chung, a Tainan firefighter, said the situation at the Wei Guan complex was complicated.
“Because the building collapsed so completely, there was no space left for the people inside – no real pockets,” he said.
Rescue work was hampered by smoke billowing from a section of the Wei Guan complex, perhaps from a fire at a ruptured natural gas line.
Wu Cheng-Chang of Taiwan International Emergency Response, a nonprofit aid group, said conditions inside were difficult. “We have to crawl in and use electric drills,” he said. “We are working in two-hour shifts.”
The quake cast a pall over the approach of Lunar New Year, a peak travel period on the island when many people return to their hometowns.
Major political parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party, canceled their nationwide New Year events. The party’s president-elect, Tsai Ing-wen, instructed authorities in regions affected by the earthquake to give all available resources and manpower to the rescue efforts.
Structural engineers told local media that it appeared the building where most of the deaths occurred may not have met earthquake standards, noting that photos taken before the quake show a base too narrow for a structure of such height in an active seismic zone. The Interior Ministry and Tainan’s mayor announced they would launch investigations into the building’s design and construction.
The quake, which hit at 3:57 a.m. Saturday local time, was particularly destructive because it was very shallow – about six miles underground – and the epicenter was on the island, not offshore. People felt the earthquake as far away as mainland China, 100 miles to the west, across the Taiwan Strait.
Associated Press contributed to this report.