The largest earthquake in Taiwan in at least 25 years killed nine people on Wednesday (3) and injured more than a thousand. The tremor was so strong that it triggered tsunami alerts in Japan, China, and the Philippines.
In Hualien County, near the epicenter, 71 people were trapped in two mining areas on Wednesday night, according to authorities. Forty flights were canceled or delayed. About 14,000 families were left without water and a thousand families were without power.
By late Wednesday night, 201 aftershocks were reported, many of them with a magnitude greater than 5. With rain forecast for the coming days, authorities warned of possible landslides.
Many residents were at home, preparing for work and school, when the earthquake struck. Others were driving on highways or had already started hiking in Taiwan’s national parks ahead of a four-day holiday. After the main quake stopped, people across the island fled to the streets and encountered damaged buildings.
Taiwan is in a seismically active region, so small tremors are common. By 3 PM, 101 aftershocks had occurred, with at least one tremor of magnitude 6.5 and many above magnitude 5.
Taiwan is located at the intersection of the Philippine Sea tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate, making it vulnerable to seismic activity. Hualien County, the most affected, sits on multiple active faults, and 17 people died in an earthquake in 2018.
Authorities said more aftershocks are likely in the next four days and warned residents to avoid visiting ancestral graves, especially in the mountains, this weekend during the holiday known as Ching Ming, which is meant to honor the deceased.
Taiwan’s earthquake preparedness has evolved over the past decades in response to some of the island’s largest and most destructive earthquakes. In 1999, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Taiwan killed nearly 2,500 people.
This earthquake was the second deadliest in the island’s history, according to the U.S.G.S. and the Central Weather Administration. More than 10,000 people were injured, and over 100,000 homes were destroyed or damaged.
Source: The New York Times