Immediately after the earthquake struck, Lanny Sue fled with her dog and family. She ran down her five flights of stairs and headed outside for safety from falling objects.
Su lives in Hualien, a bustling tourist city on Taiwan’s east coast, where a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Wednesday morning. Seven people were killed, 700 injured, and hundreds more trapped under the rubble.
Three of a group of seven people on an early morning hike in the hills surrounding the city were crushed to death by rocks loosened by the quake, officials said. Separately, a truck driver was killed in a landslide while approaching a tunnel in the area.
The people of Hualien are not used to deadly earthquakes. Still, it was the most frightening Sue had ever felt, she said.
As panicked neighbors wondered what to do next, they learned that the building’s basement was beginning to flood. Worried that the building would collapse, they decided to leave.
City streets were clogged with traffic and emergency vehicles as Sue and her family drove in search of a vacant space to evacuate. She could hear the ground rumbling as aftershocks occurred.
Wednesday’s earthquake that struck southeastern Hualien was the strongest in Taiwan in nearly 25 years, and its strength puts it in the category of the so-called “921” earthquake, named for the date it occurred on Sept. 21, 1999. They almost matched and caused more damage. The death toll exceeded 2,400.
The people of Hualien have faced many severe earthquakes in recent years. In September 2022, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake centered near the city collapsed buildings, derailed trains, killed one person, and left thousands of residents without power.
Yashwant Kutati said he had just dropped his children off at school and was riding his moped through Wednesday morning rush hour traffic in Hualien when the quake struck. First, he felt like the air had been let out of his moped’s tires. And within seconds, chaos erupted, with surrounding drivers slamming on their brakes and falling off their bikes in the shaking. Even after reaching a safe place, he still felt uneasy.
“You could see people screaming and the shaking continued every few minutes for hours,” he said, adding that it was the biggest earthquake he had witnessed in his 12 years living in Taiwan. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep in the house tonight,” he added. “I feel very scared.”
Lai Hunshu, a hostel owner in Hualien County, said he was used to earthquakes, but this one was different.
“We weren’t particularly nervous when the earthquake first started, earthquakes happen all the time, but what was different about this one was that the shaking was much stronger and lasted much longer than usual. That’s what it means. ”
Her hostel is in the mountains, and when the earthquake started, she could hear the sound of falling rocks from the mountains. Aftershocks continued throughout the day, she said. She was concerned about the long-term impact on the tourism industry.
“The main reason visitors come to our hostel is to see the beauty of Taroko National Park. We don’t know how long the repairs will take or whether our guests will consider returning here. .
“The road connecting Hualien to the north has been completely destroyed…This is the most severe infrastructure damage we have ever seen.”
In Hualien, buildings collapsed, leaving one block in a residential area leaning at a 45-degree angle as rescue workers used cherry pickers to pull residents from the upper floors.
There was light damage to some buildings in central Taipei on Wednesday morning, including at Liberty Square, one of the city’s most famous tourist attractions.
Outside the Howard Plaza Hotel, passersby looked up at the damage to the hotel’s exterior, with bricks cracked and some of the hotel’s signage peeled off in the earthquake.
“I’ve never felt an earthquake like this in Los Angeles, even though earthquakes happen often,” said Mike Hun Hsu, a visitor from the United States who was woken up by the shaking. “I used to live in Taiwan. In my memory, there has never been an earthquake like this.”
He said his family canceled a sightseeing trip he had planned to Yilan County, near Hualien on the island’s east coast, because there was no way to travel by public transportation.
Aftershocks from the Hualien earthquake continued for several hours after the initial shaking, and were reportedly felt as far away as Hong Kong, Fujian province, and Shanghai.
Kutati, who rents scooters to tourists in Hualien and runs a guest hostel with his wife, said he is worried about the loss of tourism as many of the main roads into the city are closed and trains are suspended. We expect this to have a significant impact on income. Taiwan will soon be holding a four-day Tomb Sweeping Festival, during which families traditionally pay homage to their ancestors and travel to the island’s many natural spots.
Hualien typically attracts backpackers, hikers, and cyclists seeking out the natural beauty of its surroundings, including nearby Taroko National Park. However, many people will likely remain at home for the next few days due to landslides occurring nearby.
