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7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Taiwan, Hundreds Injured – HotAir

April 3, 2024
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7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Taiwan, Hundreds Injured – HotAir

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the east coast of Taiwan this morning, just before 8am local time. It was the strongest quake to hit the island in 25 years. Early reports say that 9 people were killed and more than 900 were injured.

The city closest to the epicenter was Hualien, which has a population of about 100,000, but the surrounding area of Hualien county is home to nearly 300,000 people. The Washington Post has a good map here which shows the initial quake epicenter along with many of the strong aftershocks that followed.

There are a bunch of videos showing the moment the quake hit. This news presenter didn’t miss a beat even as she struggled to stay on her feet.

Here’s dashcam video showing cars (and a bus) on a freeway near the epicenter.

Here’s the view from inside a train in Taipei.

There were a number of building collapses. You can see one falling over in this clip. 

There were also a series of landslides.

People had to be rescued from the partially collapsed buildings. [The image at the top of the page shows a building collapse after an earthquake struck this same area in 2018.]

Even people who’ve grown used to earthquakes were terrified:

Authorities said they had expected a relatively mild quake of magnitude 4 and accordingly did not send out alerts. Still, the earthquake was strong enough to scare people who are used to such shaking.

“Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and I’ve grown accustomed to them. But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake,” said Hsien-hsuen Keng, a resident who lives in a fifth-floor apartment in Taipei. ”I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”

But within a matter of hours, even as some rescue operations were still underway, most people were getting back to work.

The initial panic after the earthquake quickly faded on the island, which is regularly rocked by temblors and prepares for them with drills at schools and notices issued via public media and mobile phone.

By noon, the metro station in the busy northern Taipei suburb of Beitou was again buzzing with people commuting to jobs and seniors arriving to visit the hot springs or travel the mountain paths at the base of an extinct volcano.

TSMC, which manufacturers most of the world’s advanced semiconductor chips evacuated briefly but said there was no damage to their facilities.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it expects to resume production overnight at facilities that were earlier interrupted after the biggest earthquake in 25 years struck its home island.

TSMC, the main contract chipmaker to Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., moved staff out of certain areas after a temblor measuring 7.4 in magnitude off the east coast on Wednesday morning.

“There is no damage to our critical tools including all of our extreme ultraviolet lithography tools,” the company said in a statement late Wednesday. A small number of tools were damaged at some facilities, but the company is deploying all available resources to ensure a full recovery, it added.

Finally, Taiwan issued a statement of thanks to allies who’d offered help and good wishes.



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