At 7:58 a.m. on April 3, 2024, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County, Taiwan, China. Within 36 hours of the earthquake, the cumulative number of aftershocks reached 400.
According to the statistics of the Taiwan Disaster Response Center, as of 12 noon on the 5th, the strong earthquake has killed 12 people, injured 1,106 people, trapped 682 people, and reduced the number of missing people to 16.
Affected by the earthquake, the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Taipei to Hualien has been extended to nine and a half hours.
The reporter drove 700 kilometers and made a detour to half of Taiwan to the Hualien area, the epicenter, to directly hit the rescue work in the earthquake-stricken area.
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The search and rescue efforts after the 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan, have entered their third day.
At 9 a.m. on April 5, the "Uranus Building", which has been heavily tilted, will be demolished after the relevant exploration and search work is completed.
Many affected households wanted to go home to pick up their important belongings, but were not allowed due to safety concerns. The residents who once lived here could only look helplessly at the collapsed homes.
Local People:
"We used to live here, and it really hurts to miss this house. ”
Located at the intersection of Xuanyuan Road and Zhongshan Road, the "Uranus Building", which is 9 stories high, and most of the rooms are suites, was seriously tilted after the strong earthquake on the morning of the 3rd, and the first floor was almost flattened and deformed.
It was one of the buildings most affected by the Hualien earthquake.
Due to the suddenness of the earthquake, many people who were still asleep were completely unprepared. Mr. Shuai, who lives on the 6th floor of the "Uranus Building", was injured when he was crushed by a heavy object in his home.
Mr. Shuai, a resident on the 6th floor of the Uranus Building:
"When the alarm went off, it started to shake, and as soon as I shook I woke up, and the thing fell down, and the second time it shook harder, and the house was crooked, and I was crushed by the storage box, and I pushed it away and rolled back in. ”
After the earthquake, the "Uranus Building" collapsed badly, and the 38-year-old building could no longer withstand more aftershocks.
With the help of the ambulance personnel, Mr. Shuai escaped from the dangerous building, and his leg that was pressed by the heavy object was also dealt with in time.
The neighbor surnamed Kang, a teacher surnamed Kang, who lives on the 7th floor, has evacuated the dangerous building, and then returned home to save his cat. Less than seconds after she entered the building, a powerful aftershock struck the "Uranus Building" hard, and she was trapped in the building.
Continuous rescue, more than 10 hours of hard work, but finally failed to wait for a miracle. At 9:10 p.m., the trapped person was rescued, unfortunately with no signs of life.
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Another building that has been demolished is a residential building located on North Shore Street and Connaught Street.
At the time of the earthquake, many customers were still eating breakfast at the "Happiness Hour Brunch" restaurant on the first floor of a private house.
The sudden earthquake caught people off guard, and in less than three seconds, the breakfast restaurant building collapsed, and diners fled for their lives.
The local authorities were worried about the risk of the building collapsing when aftershocks hit, so they decided to start the demolition of the house on the 3rd.
At 8 p.m. on the 4th, the demolition work was completed, and the road surface will be paved with asphalt for the rest of the day.
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According to expert assessments, the Hualien earthquake is equivalent to 32 atomic bombs. In less than two hours after the main shock occurred at 7:58 a.m., there were 28 aftershocks ranging from magnitude 4 to 5.
In addition to the tilting and collapse of many buildings in Hualien City, a large number of rockfalls occurred in places such as the Chongde Tunnel and the Daqingshui Tunnel on Suhua Highway. Rescue work is urgent.
Due to the traffic blockage caused by the slide of the boulder, 7 miners in the Heren mining area of Hualien and 64 miners in the Heping mining area were trapped for a time and were in critical condition.
Taroko Park, with its nearly vertical marble canyons and magnificent waterfalls, was also hit hard by the earthquake, with nearly 100 people trapped in Taroko Park, which was once known as a natural wonder.
In the early morning of April 4, Taiwan's Air Service Corps urgently dispatched Black Hawk helicopters to rescue seven miners trapped in the Heren mining area by hanging, but unfortunately one person still died.
At the Peace Mine, all 64 people who are currently trapped have walked down the mountain from the old forest road, but the miners still have lingering fears when it comes to their experience of being trapped.
Rescued miners in the Heren mining area:
"The rockfall shook down like bullets, and we didn't know where to run, so we hid behind the sand slope. ”
The 50 employees of the Taroko Jingying Hotel, which was trapped in the Jiuqu Dongming Tunnel, were also rescued one after another on the afternoon of the 4th. Trapped for a day and a night, they faced the camera and expressed their gratitude in their hearts.
Crystal Hotel Staff:
"I'm scared when I hear that sound now, thank you for coming to our rescue. ”
As there is no network on Taroko Mountain, the trapped people are scattered in many places, as of noon on April 5, six people are still missing on a hiking trail, and the Taiwan authorities have not been able to count the number of foreign tourists on the mountain, and a search and rescue team of more than 50 people, with equipment and search and rescue dogs, is still continuing to search and rescue at the scene.
Professor Lin, Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, National Central University:
"In the past 25 years, we have done quite well from the formulation of the most basic policies and regulations, including the revision of building regulations, as well as the so-called emergency rescue resources, such as the establishment of search and rescue teams, the training of search and rescue dogs, the procurement of some equipment, life detectors, etc. ”
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In addition to the government search and rescue team, more social forces are participating in the rescue.
Zhonghua Primary School in Hualien City also became a temporary shelter for homeless people after the earthquake.
Although the people of Taiwan have made corresponding preparations for the arrival of the earthquake on weekdays, what is unacceptable to the public is that when the earthquake occurred, many regions did not receive relevant warning signals in advance and could not respond to the danger in the first place.
Chiayi tourist Chen:
"I was on the first floor at the time, so I hid under the walls and the corresponding tables, and there were no other measures in the hotel. ”
In response to the fact that people in Taipei, New Taipei and other areas did not receive the earthquake warning, Wu Jianfu, director of the Earthquake Monitoring and Reporting Center of the Taiwan Meteorological Department, said that he and his colleagues did not receive the warning either.
Wu Jianfu, Director of the Earthquake Monitoring and Forecasting Center of the Taiwan Meteorological Department:
"The areas we didn't have were six areas, Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, and the main reason was that the seismic intensity was underestimated. ”
In addition, the occurrence of the earthquake has also caused problems in the ordinary life of the people
One of the buildings in Hualien is Shanhaiguan, and there are more than 30 similar buildings. Although government officials said that they would "allocate 300 million yuan to provide the county government", the resettlement of residents may not be achieved in the short term, and relevant assistance measures such as low-interest loans and freight subsidies need to be improved.
As of April 5, disaster relief activities are still being carried out in an orderly manner, and in the face of relentless natural disasters, Hualien is not an isolated island, and many reconstruction efforts are still being made through the cooperation between the government and the private sector. With donations from all over the world and the manpower and material resources invested in various places, it is hoped that this wounded land will be able to recover from the disaster and get back up from the trauma.
Producer: Zhong Jinmei
Choreographer: Du Siyu, Xiao Qianya, Guo Xiaoyu
Editor: Su Weijia