The quake triggered aftershocks and damaged dozens of buildings, killing at least 10 people and leaving many injured or trapped.
The strong 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Taiwan on Wednesday morning was the strongest to hit the island in the past 25 years.
It initially prompted forecasts of tsunami waves in China, Japan and the Philippines, but those warnings were later cancelled. There were more than a hundred aftershocks and more were expected in the next three or four days.
This is what we know about the earthquake and its consequences.
What is the number of victims?
The earthquake killed at least ten people and injured more than a thousand, Taiwan’s fire department reported Wednesday night. Dozens of people were still trapped yesterday.
Among the dead were at least three hikers who were hit by falling rocks on a trail in Taroko National Park, according to the state-owned Central News Agency.
What areas of Taiwan were affected?
The most severe damage occurred in Hualien county on the east coast, near the epicenter, which was about 17 kilometers south of Hualien city, the county capital. The nine people who died lived in this county, according to authorities. But the earthquake was felt throughout Taiwan.
In the capital, Taipei, buildings shook for more than a minute. Train services were interrupted throughout the island. Airlines canceled or delayed dozens of flights. More than 360,000 homes were without power at some point on Wednesday, according to Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operations Center.
What was damaged?
The worst damage occurred in the city of Hualien, where several buildings tilted and their ground floors were crushed. One of the buildings, a 10-story structure that housed a mix of homes and businesses, was one of the centers of the rescue efforts.
Across Taiwan, the quake and its aftershocks caused the partial collapse of 15 buildings and damaged 67 others. One of the buildings in Changhua County in southern Taiwan was damaged. A building in Changhua county on the west coast has completely collapsed, according to Taiwan’s fire department.
The quake also triggered at least nine landslides on a major highway in Hualien, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, which said part of the highway had collapsed.
How prepared was Taiwan?
Taiwan has improved its level of preparedness through decades of destructive earthquakes.
The island has refined its early warning system since the 1980s. It also updated its building codes in 2022, requiring owners of vulnerable structures to install reinforcements.
Taiwan established an urban search and rescue team and opened several emergency medical operations centers after an earthquake in the center of the country killed nearly 2,500 people in 1999. The government also ordered a wave of building inspections in 2018. after 17 people died in an earthquake in Hualien.
Why have there been so many earthquakes in Taiwan?
Many deadly earthquakes have struck Taiwan in the last century. The island sits on several active faults, associated with seismic activity.
It is near the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area that, according to the US Geological Survey, is the most seismically and volcanically active in the world.
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