Earthquake in Taiwan leaves at least 9 dead and 50 missing

At least nine people died and 821 were injured in Taiwan after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the island’s east coast in the early hours of Wednesday (3), according to the latest official figures.

The earthquake, the worst recorded in Taiwan since the magnitude 7.6 earthquake of September 21, 1999 – which killed 2,416 people – occurred at 7:58 am on Wednesday (local time, 8:58 pm on Tuesday in Brasília ) and had its epicenter at sea, specifically 25 kilometers southeast of eastern Hualien County.

The earthquake and its successive aftershocks caused extensive material damage, especially in the Hualien area, where numerous buildings and infrastructures were affected and at least two housing blocks partially collapsed, in addition to causing the closure of several roads.

According to the Taiwan Central Meteorological Agency (CWA), as of around 4:30 pm today (5:30 am) the island had recorded 123 aftershocks of varying intensity, including nine with magnitudes between 5 and 6 degrees.

Similarly, according to state electricity company Taipower, a total of 371,275 homes were left without power after the earthquake, although around 99% have now recovered supply.

The number of incidents related to the catastrophe has so far stood at 1,103, with 690 cases classified as “other types of events”, followed by 189 civil infrastructure incidents and 125 incidents of damage to buildings.

Furthermore, the world’s largest semiconductor producer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was forced to evacuate part of its employees from its facilities.

Taipei earthquake reports

The tremors were felt for at least an hour and a half in the capital Taipei, according to Argentine Brenda Hesse, a student at the National Taiwan University (NTU), told EFE.

“It was ugly, the feeling of not knowing what everything was like outside was strange (…) Whoever is inside a building is not fully aware of the magnitude of everything outside, they didn’t know if there was a lot of destruction, to what extent everything was good or bad for me to convey peace of mind to my relatives in Argentina”, he stated.

Mauricio Garcete, a Paraguayan student at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), was in his university residence in New Taipei when he began to feel the first effects of the earthquake. “This was the strongest earthquake I experienced in Taiwan. Then we learned from the news that there was a lot of damage in the eastern cities,” he told EFE.

“It was the first time in my life that I felt an earthquake of such magnitude. The walls were shaking, books and lamps fell, and when the main earthquake stopped, we had no electricity or water in the apartment,” explained Spanish researcher Rubén Almendros, who was in the Nangang district of Taipei.

Around a thousand people trapped in mountain

Around a thousand people are trapped in the mountains of Taroko National Park, in Hualien County, in southeastern Taiwan, as a result of the earthquake that shook the island’s east coast, according to the state news agency. CNA.

According to estimates by park authorities, at least 654 people, including tourists and staff, were in Taroko at the time of the earthquake and several hundred entered the park later, bringing the number of people stranded to around a thousand.

After establishing an emergency center, Taroko National Park is contacting mountaineering teams one by one, although it has not yet determined the exact number of people who entered the mountain during the day, media reports said.

The park will remain closed until April 7 and officials have asked visitors to avoid areas that were affected by the earthquake. Hualien County was most affected by the earthquake.

Replicas in the coming days

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called on the population to remain calm and take extreme precautions, as new aftershocks between 6.5 and 7 degrees of earthquake are likely to occur in the coming days.

The minister, who visited the Disaster Response Center together with Prime Minister Chen Chien-jen, said that the Executive has given orders to provide the necessary assistance and work with local governments in emergency efforts.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), which issued and later suspended a warning about the arrival of a possible tsunami in the Okinawa archipelago (southwest), also warned of the risk of aftershocks occurring in the coming days.

Philippines activates tsunami warning

Philippine authorities on Wednesday activated a tsunami warning for the country’s northern coast following the earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale that hit a coastal area near Taiwan.

“Based on tsunami wave models (…) coastal areas of the Philippines off the Pacific Ocean are expected to experience high waves,” the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in a statement.

According to the agency, the first strong waves should occur between 8:33 am and 10:33 am (local time; 9:33 pm and 11:33 pm in Brasília), and there may be a long sequence.

Philippine authorities are advising people in coastal areas in more than 20 provinces to “immediately leave” their homes and seek refuge “in higher areas inland.” (With EFE Agency)

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