Five days after a powerful earthquake between 7.2 and 7.4 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of Hualien County in the east of Taiwan, the death toll has now risen to 13 people, with 1,133 injured and six still missing. This includes a Singaporean-Australian couple, whom rescuers were still searching for on the morning of Monday, April 8, amid the mountainous region's massive rockslides and landslides.
Several hundred buildings, a bridge and a section of road were also destroyed or damaged, but overall, most of the infrastructure held up well. On Sunday, crates of food and survival supplies were dropped by helicopter over an elementary school, a church and other places that are still blocked off, while several teams of engineers and heavy machinery continued to clear roads and tunnel entrances of the huge boulders blocking them.
A few hundred tourists also remained stranded at the Silks Place Taroko luxury hotel complex, located in the heart of Taroko National Park, whose magnificent gorges are one of Taiwan's most popular tourist destinations.
"Local rescue capabilities and resources are abundant," said Interior Minister Lin Yu-chang, who also heads the Central Emergency Operation Center, on Saturday.
Several factors seem to have contributed to the surprisingly low toll of this recent earthquake. The first is simply the frequency of this type of event. Due to its geological location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, with many fault lines running through it, Taiwan is very familiar with earthquakes. For about 30 years, the subject has been closely monitored by the authorities, especially the Central Weather Bureau Seismographic Network (CWBSN), which has 170 stations spread across the island and observes, records and analyzes 40,000 earthquakes a year, with equipment that is constantly being improved. But only a fraction of these tremors are perceptible, and only a fraction of these cause damage. During the 20th century, 48 earthquakes resulted in deaths in Taiwan.
Ever since the infamous Chi-Chi earthquake on September 21, 1999, dubbed the "921," the authorities have decided to stop treating these catastrophes as inevitable. The "921," which registered 7.7 on the Richter scale, caused the deaths of over 2,400 people.
At that time, 51,000 buildings collapsed, and just as many were partially destroyed. Since then, the government has imposed strict construction and safety standards in order to make all new buildings more resistant to seismic shocks. Proof of its confidence in its anti-seismic technology and expertise, Taiwan even had the audacity in 2004 to build the world's then-tallest tower, the famous 508-meter Taipei 101. In addition to its extremely deep foundations, the building houses an enormous 730-ton steel pendulum suspended between several floors at the building's summit, visible to visitors. It is supposed to cushion and reduce the tower's undulations by 40% in the event of an earthquake or strong winds. Although 70% of the most virulent earthquakes occur on the east coast, the capital, Taipei, located in the north of the island, is regularly "shaken."
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