Tragic tales of loss in Taiwan as search for quake survivors ends
TAIPEI: As rescuers in Taiwan said they had retrieved all the missing from the ruins of a building felled by an earthquake, a tragic picture emerged of the cross-section of society killed in the disaster.
Thequaketookthelivesof114in theWei-kuan apartment complex in the southern city of Tainan, froma10-day-oldbabytoa75-yearold woman.
Among the dead were a security guard, a mother-to-be, and the chair of the building’s managementcommittee—thelast body to be pulled fromthe rubble Saturday.Butitwastheyoungwho suffered most — a third of the victims were under 25-years-old.
Among them was a pair of university students reported to have been found in each other’s arms in the rubble.
Tsai Meng-chia and Huang Rohsinhadbeenout singingkaraoke to celebrate a friend’s birthday, returning toWei-kuan just before the earthquake struck at 4:00 am local time last Saturday, local media said.
Their fate wasmentioned in a tribute by Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou.
“It’s very, very saddening that two21-year-oldlivesdisappeared, just like that,” Ma said.
Although the building housed only 256 registered residents, thereweremore than380thereon the night of the quake. Many had joined their families for the start of the LunarNewYear holidays.
Authoritiessaidstudent tenants would also not have been on the official register.
Relatives toldhowtheir families had been all but wiped out by the disaster.
Survivor Lee Tsong-tian, 40, was the only one of eight family members to be pulled out alive aftermorethan50hours— among the last residents to be rescued.
“Out of my family of eight, Tsong-tian was saved,” his sister LeeSu-tsutoldreportersduringa memorial serviceheld for victims Friday.
“I hope they departed quickly without much pain,” she said.
Rescuers worked for 20 hours to free Lee, whose leg was trapped in the rubble — it was later amputated.
The mother of the 10-day-old baby who died told of her last moments with the child.
LiuYi-chen, a38-year-oldnurse, was breast-feeding in bed when the floor of the roomcaved in.
“The baby fell nearby, I heard her cry but I couldn’t reach her,” Liu told AFP.
“The baby cried for an hour and then there was no voice.”
Liu also lost her husband and two other young children.
As the search operation ended Saturday, the focus nowis to clear the rubble and disinfect the site, Tainan’smayorWilliam Lai said.
The building developer and two other associates are under investigation for professional negligence causing death and prosecutors have said the building had a number of flaws, including a lack of steel reinforcement bars. — AFP