At least ten people died as Taiwan was hit with a 6.4 earthquake just after midnight on Wednesday the 7th of February. Rescuers combed through rubble at Hualien, a tourist city of about 100,000 people about 120km south from Taipei, and continued their search for survivors in a dangerously tilted building. At least four midsized buildings in worst-hit Hualien county leaned at sharp angles, their lowest floors crushed into mangled heaps of concrete, glass, iron and other debris. Firefighters climbed ladders hoisted against windows to reach people inside apartments.
Terrified residents endured 200 aftershocks including a 5.7 magnitude tremor. “That fear is still there,” said one survivor. “I’m still afraid because things kept on falling down.”
Beside killing 10 people, the quake injured 272 while seven remained unaccounted for. At least three of the dead were tourists from China. Japan’s Foreign Ministry said nine Japanese were among the injured. Six mainland Chinese were also injured.
President Tsai Ing-wen reassured the public every effort would be made to rescue survivors. She “ordered search and rescue workers not to give up on any opportunity to save people, while keeping their own safety in mind.”
The shifting of the buildings was likely caused by soil liquefaction, when the ground loses its solidity under stress such as the shaking of an earthquake. The quake also buckled roads and disrupted electricity and water supplies to thousands of households.
Japan dispatched a rescue team to help in the search effort.
Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes, since it is located along the ring of fire which runs from New Zealand to Japan, and from Japan to Alaska, the US west coasts, and all the way down to Chile.
“And there shall be famines, and pestilences and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:7.