| The Hualien Earthquake | ||||||||||
| By Huang Hsiu-hua Abridged and translated by Tang Yau-yang Photos by Hsiao Yiu-hwa | ||||||||||
People in Hualien, eastern Taiwan, are generally inured to earthquakes, but this time even they were terrified to the core. At 11:50 in the evening of February 6, 2018, less than ten days before Chinese New Year, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Hualien, shaking it violently for up to 86 seconds. Objects flew across rooms. People, shaken awake from their slumber, screamed and cried. Soon the wail of sirens sliced through the air as fire engines and ambulances rushed to disaster scenes. In less than two hours, the Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital emergency department received more than a hundred quake victims.
Two disaster sites The earthquake, originating only 10 kilometers (6 miles) underground, caused four large buildings in Hualien to partially collapse or lean at dangerous angles. Chen Jian-xiang (陳建香), 66, lived in one of the wrecked structures—the Yunmen Cuiti Building, a 12-story apartment building. “The quake lasted for more than a minute and sent things in my home flying,” Chen recalled. “In the darkness, my head was hit by the TV set. I felt my head and my hand came away wet. It was blood.” He didn’t know at the time what had happened to his building, but he used his cell phone to illuminate and guide him towards the rear balcony of his home. Once there, he found a large piece of furniture blocking the door. He didn’t know where he got the strength, but somehow he was able to pry the door open enough to squeeze through to the outside. When he got out and looked around, he was shocked by what he saw. Though he lived on the sixth floor, he discovered that his balcony was no more than one story above the ground. Four rescuers extended a ladder for him to climb down. When his feet reached the ground, his legs completely gave out and he collapsed. The rescuers had to carry him away from the scene.
The building tipped about 45 degrees in the quake. To make rescue work safer, steel posts were used to shore up the building. Rescuers raced against the clock to find trapped victims. Frequent aftershocks only made the search that much more daunting. Rescuers were successful in pulling out survivors the morning after the quake, but as the day wore on, more and more bad news came out. As corpses were retrieved, the rain picked up and temperatures dropped. Rescuers, first responders, and volunteers from various organizations braved the rain and cold, working heroically to do all they could. Journalists were on hand, chronicling the efforts of those working hard to help others. Soon everyone was soaking wet and chilled to the bone. Tzu Chi volunteers distributed blankets and hot food and brought in portable stoves to help keep people warm.
The 41-year-old Marshal Hotel was another of the four badly damaged structures. All of the hotel’s guests survived and were rescued, but two staffers were trapped inside. At around 2:40 p.m., almost 15 hours after the quake, rescuers pulled out one of the staffers, Zhou Zhi-xuan (周志軒). Sadly he didn’t survive. The rescue continued, and they soon reached the other employee, Liang Shu-wei (梁書瑋), and helped him get out of the building. By the time Liang was rescued, he had been trapped in the building for over 15 hours, yet he was still able to walk on his own. He was sent to Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital for examination. Liang said that when the quake hit, four pillars around him collapsed, glass doors broke, and the ceiling caved in. He fell by a pillar. Feeling around in the darkness, he found he was in a space only big enough for him to lie spread eagle, with just a little wiggling room on either side. He called out to Zhou Zhi-xuan to find out if he was all right. At first he heard faint sounds and knocks in response, but after a few aftershocks, those ceased. When he heard the sounds of traffic and people calling out for survivors, he kept knocking on hard surfaces to help rescuers locate him. As the human voices got nearer and nearer to him, he knew he was about to be rescued. The moment he was pulled out, he felt that it was great to be alive. “From now on, I’ll be even nicer to my family and girlfriend,” he told himself. “The good heaven spared your life for a reason,” Liang’s father said to him. “You must do more good in the future.”
The aid Seventeen people perished in the earthquake. Nearly 300 people were injured and many more were forced from their homes. The Hualien county government housed displaced victims in Zhonghua Elementary School and the county stadium, each sheltering about 300 people. Tzu Chi volunteers provided folding beds to the families in the shelters. Several organizations, including Tzu Chi, provided meals. Many other good-hearted people donated clothes, comforters, and daily necessities. By February 13, Tzu Chi volunteers had distributed consolation cash to 198 affected families. The aid ranged from 20,000 (US$670) to 50,000 NT dollars per household, depending on the size of the family and the extent of damage to their home. Hopefully everyone’s work to help the victims will go a long way toward bringing normalcy back to fractured lives.
|
|
