Searches continue after quake
RESCUERS were yesterday searching for dozens of people missing a day after Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in a quarter of a century damaged buildings, killed 10 people and left others stranded in remote areas.
In the eastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicentre, workers used an excavator to stabilise the base of a damaged building with construction materials as officials took samples of its exterior.
Mayor Hsu Chen- wei said that 48 residential buildings were damaged, some of which were tilting at precarious angles with their ground floors crushed.
Some Hualien residents were staying in tents and the main road linking the county to the capital Taipei was still closed yesterday afternoon. Some local rail services to Hualien resumed.
Taiwan is regularly jolted by earthquakes and its population is well prepared for them. It also has stringent construction requirements.
Hendri Sutrisno, a 30- year- old professor at Hualien Dong Hwa
University, spent Wednesday night in a tent with his wife and baby, fearing aftershocks.
He said: “We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet. We have been staying here ever since.”
Of the 10 dead, at least four were killed inside Taroko National Park.
One person was found dead in a damaged building and another was found in the Ho Ren Quarry, where six workers were airlifted out.
About 700 people were either still missing or stranded including more than 600 who were stranded inside a hotel called Silks Place Taroko, the National Fire Agency said.
Authorities said work to repair the roads to the hotel was close to completion.