HUALIEN: Taiwanese rescuers worked on Thursday 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.

Relief workers set aside stuffed toys, blankets and baby formula for families sheltering in an elementary school in Hualien, the epicentre of the earthquake.

Ten people were killed and nearly 1,100 injured in Wednesday’s magnitude-7.4 quake, but strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe on the island.

Dozens of residents of the worst-hit city, Hualien, spent a night outdoors rather than in apartments still being shaken by aftershocks, and a huge engineering operation was underway to fix damaged roads and prop up tilting buildings.

Families shelter in tents after apartments prove vulnerable to aftershocks

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.

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 after a briefing at an emergency operation centre in Hualien.

The island has been shaken by hundreds of 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 on Thursday.

Families traditionally visit the tombs of their ancestors on the holiday to clean the gravesites and burn offerings. “Do not go to the mountains unless necessary,” warned President Tsai Ing-wen.

‘Good to be alive’

The latest casualty, a 65-year-old man, was found on a hiking trail in Hualien county on Thursday afternoon.

Rescue workers deployed ropes to move the body on the uneven terrain filled with jagged rocks, according to footage released by officials.

Authorities were in contact with over 700 people trapped in tunnels or cut-off areas, but had lost touch with about a dozen — although they were believed to be safe.

At around 4pm, a highway leading to Taroko National Park was cleared. A small group stranded for nearly 30 hours emerged to be greeted by rescue workers handing them water and ushering some to the first aid tent.

“It’s good to be alive!” said David Chen, who works at the luxury Silks Place Taroko hotel located deeper in the mountains.

In Hualien, a glass-fronted building named Uranus — now tilting at a 45-degree angle after half of its first floor pancaked — has become something of a symbol of the quake.

Over 100 people chose to sleep in tents at a shelter set up in an elementary school as the aftershocks continued.

“Our worry is when the big aftershocks happen it might be really hard for us to evacuate one more time — especially with the baby,” said Indonesian Hendri Sutrisno, 30, a professor at Donghua University.

He and his wife hid under a table with their infant when the earthquake struck before fleeing their apartment.

“We have all the necessary stuff, blankets, (a) toilet and a place to rest,” he said.

Social media was awash with video and images from around the island shared by people who experienced Wednesday’s quake.

Wednesday’s quake was the most severe since 1999, when Taiwan was hit by a magnitude-7.6 temblor. It killed 2,400 people, the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2024