14 dead over 100 missing after quake flattens buildings in Taiwan
Date
2/6/2016 10:55:28 PM
(MENAFN- Asia Times) An infant is rescued from a collapsed building in Tainan
The building is reportedly a complex of towers whose floors pancaked down onto to each other when the 6.7 magnitude tremor struck at 03:57 am Beijing Time on Saturday two days before the 2016 Chinese Lunar New Year.
Rescuers pulled 247 survivors from the rubble in the worst-hit Tainan city. More than 1200 firefighters scrambled with ladders cranes(Watch video clip) and other equipment to the ruins of a 17-floor residential building that folded like an accordion in a pile of rubble and twisted metal.
Elsewhere in the city of 2 million people several buildings tilted at alarming angles but a fire department official said rescue efforts were focused entirely on the apartment block.
As dawn broke live Taiwanese TV showed survivors being brought gingerly from the high-rise including an elderly woman in a neck brace and others wrapped in blankets. The trappings of daily life a partially crushed air conditioner pieces of a metal balcony windows lay twisted in rubble. People with their arms around firefighters were being helped from the building and cranes were being used to search darkened parts of the structure for survivors. One elderly woman wrapped in blankets was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up signs of life in the rubble. Men in camouflage apparently military personnel marched into one area of collapse carrying large shovels. The Taiwanese news website ET Today reported that a mother and a daughter were among the survivors pulled from the Wei Guan building. “I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down” said a 71-year-old neighbour who gave his name as Chang. A plumber he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help. “She asked me to go back and rescue her husband child but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn’t go in. At the time there were more people calling for help but my ladder wasn’t long enough so there was no way to save them.” “It first starting shaking horizontally then up and down then a big shake right to left” said Tainan resident Lin Bao-gui a second-hand car salesman whose cars were smashed when the residential complex across the street from him collapsed. “I stayed in my bed but jumped up when I heard the big ‘bang’ that was the sound of the building falling” he said.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent profound condolences to Taiwan over the loss of human lives in the quake.
Firefighters enter a collapsed building to search for earthquake survivors in Kaohsiung
Tainan mayor William Lai said it was too early to say if shoddy construction was responsible for the devastation at the apartment complex with the 17-storey tower which collapsed. “We will chase the legal responsibility later” he told reporters. President Ma Ying-jeou visited an emergency center and hospital in Tainan while President-elect Tsai Ing-wen canceled appointments to help coordinate rescue efforts. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office which is in charge of Beijing’s relations with the self-ruled island said China was willing to provide help if needed Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. The quake initially cut power to 168000 households in Tainan many of whose residents lived through a massive 1999 tremor that killed about 2400 people. Later utility Taipower said power had been restored to all but about 900 households. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) the world’s largest contract chipmaker said some of its wafers made in Tainan had been damaged and some customers might be affected though first-quarter shipments remained on track. TSMC will step up production to make up for any delayed shipments spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun said. It is a big supplier to global smartphone firms including Apple Inc. Other major Apple suppliers in Taiwan reported no impact on operations. Taiwan lies in the seismically active “Pacific Ring of Fire”. Television quoted Tainan residents as saying the quake felt worse than the 1999 tremor centred in central Taiwan. Taiwan’s defence ministry said 810 soldiers had been mobilised for rescue efforts. Authorities said cracks had been found in a dam but there was no immediate danger. Some bullet train services were suspended to the south as track inspections were carried out Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp said in a statement.