Achi news desk-
Calgarians in Taiwan are worried about their loved ones after the island was hit with the strongest earthquake in 25 years.
The epicenter of the earthquake was registered just off the coast of Hualien County at 8 am local time on Wednesday. It was registered as a magnitude 7.2 earthquake according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration but the US Geological Survey said it was a magnitude 7.4 earthquake. More than 180 aftershocks have been registered across Taiwan by the Central Weather Administration since the earthquake.
Photos and images from Hualien City show buildings leaning precariously after the earthquake and emergency crews seen rescuing people from crumbling buildings. Deadly landslides were reported across Hualien County after the earthquake.
As of 4:22 pm MT on Wednesday, at least nine people were killed according to the latest numbers from the Hualien County government. At least 50 workers on the way to a hotel in Taoroko National Park are missing and hundreds of tourists are still trapped in the area.
Across Taiwan, more than 900 people were injured.
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It is the largest earthquake since the 7.6 magnitude 921 Jiji earthquake in 1999, which killed more than 2,000 people and injured more than 11,000.
“It’s a very hard feeling … As a native who grew up on the east coast of Taiwan, Hualien … I experienced earthquakes (as a teenager),” said Samson Cho.
Cho is a minister who immigrated to Canada from Taiwan in the 1970s. He was only 12 years old when he experienced his first major earthquake, an experience that sticks with him to this day.
He told Global News he was on the phone with family back in Taiwan when the earthquake shook their homeland.
“It was 8 in the morning (for my family) and I was talking to them. It happened so fast … It scared me. That brought me back to my early childhood. I talked all night and received all kinds of communications (about the earthquake).
Cho, however, said the Taiwanese people are resilient and will be able to rebuild.
“We have been trained to endure this difficult time. We understand. Now we pray for them,” he said. “I pray that our communities are listening. The Taiwanese society in Calgary should be thinking of a more concrete plan to do something to help. When something happens around the world, Taiwan always takes the first step to help them… That always touches my heart. I should do something to help.”
Li-hsin Liu, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, said she expects some fundraising events to take place in the coming days and months.
For now, efforts are focused on using support to help victims. Many people are still trapped in their homes and hundreds more have been displaced, according to the Hualien County government.
“We are working on that, to see if it will be useful for a foreign rescue team to visit Taiwan and work with our rescue team together,” Liu said.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
