HUALIEN,
In the eastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicenter, workers used an excavator to stabilize the base of a damaged building with construction materials, as some officers took samples of its exterior and chickens browsed amid potted plants on its slanted roof.
Mayor
Some Hualien residents were still staying in tents, and the main road linking the county to the capital and the island's was still closed Thursday afternoon, but much of the island’s day-to-day life was returning to normal. Some local rail service to Hualien resumed, and the
“We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet. And then we’re staying here ever since to assess the situation,” he said.
Others also said they didn't dare to go home because the walls of their apartments were cracked and they lived on higher floors. Taiwanese Primer
Nearly 1,070 people were injured in the quake that struck Wednesday morning. Of the nine dead, at least four were killed inside
About 690 people were either still missing or stranded Thursday, including over 600 who were stranded inside a hotel called Silks Place Taroko, the
Others who were reported to be stranded, including two dozen tourists and six university students, were safe too, they said.
Authorities also said some 60 workers, who had been unable to leave a quarry due to blocked and damaged roads, were freed.
Around 40 people, mostly hotel employees earlier reported to be in the national park, were still out of contact with authorities.
For hours after the quake, local television showed neighbors and rescue workers lifting residents through windows and onto the street from damaged buildings where the shaking had jammed doors shut. It wasn’t clear Thursday if any people were still trapped in buildings.
The quake and its aftershocks caused landslides and damaged roads, bridges and tunnels. The national legislature and sections of
The quake was the strongest to hit
The economic losses caused by the quake are still unclear. The self-ruled island is the leading manufacturer of the world’s most sophisticated computer chips and other high-technology items that are sensitive to seismic events.
Hualien was last struck by a deadly quake in 2018, which killed 17 people and brought down a historic hotel. Taiwan’s worst recent quake struck on
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This story has been corrected to reflect Huang was in “her” apartment, not “his."
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Leung reported from
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