Rescuers racing against time
Authorities in contact with people trapped in tunnels, cut-off areas. WAKE OF BIGGEST QUAKE IN 25 YEARS
Taiwan rescuers worked yesterday to reach scores of people trapped in highway tunnels as engineers began a massive clear-up operation a day after the island’s biggest earthquake in a quarter of a century.
Nine people were killed and more than 1 000 injured in Wednesday’s 7.4-magnitude quake, but strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe.
Dozens of residents of the worst-hit city spent a night outdoors rather than in apartments still being shaken by aftershocks.
A massive engineering operation was under way to fix damaged roads and prop up tilting buildings. Dramatic video released on Thursday by the island’s Central Emergency Operation Centre showed a helicopter flying two sorties to pluck up six miners trapped in a gypsum quarry in Hualien county, near the epicentre of the quake.
Rescuers knew the whereabouts of dozens more people trapped in a network of strongly built tunnels in the county, a feature of the roads that cut through the scenic mountains and cliffs leading to Hualien City from the north and west.
Hundreds of others were holding out at a luxury hotel and youth activity centre near the Taroko National Park, with roads leading to both blocked by landslides.
“I also hope that we can use today’s time to find all people who are stranded and unaccounted for and help them settle down,” Premier Chen Chien-jen said.
The island has been shaken by over 300 strong aftershocks since the first quake, and the government warned people to be wary of landslides or rockfalls if they ventured to the countryside for Qingming, a two-day public holiday that began yesterday.
Families traditionally visit the tombs of their ancestors on the holiday to clean the gravesites and burn offerings.
The latest figures from the national disaster agency said nine people had been killed and 1 064 injured in the quake.
Authorities were in contact with over 600 people trapped in tunnels or cut-off areas, but had lost touch with another 42 – although they were believed to be safe.
In Hualien, a glass-fronted building named Uranas now tilting at a 45-degree angle after half of its first floor pancaked has become a symbol of the quake.
In Washington, the White House said the United States was prepared to provide “any necessary assistance”. –