Taipei city: Rescue workers search debris after Taiwan was hit by its strongest earthquake in almost 25 years, causing 12 deaths and leaving 1,100 injured, as buildings were levelled and rail traffic stopped. Its the strongest earthquake in almost 25 years. The effect was mitigated because of the infrastructure quality, forward plans, immediate relief, rehabiliation and more important the mindset of people of due diligence, just a small number of death and limited damage was caused.
The quake had a magnitude of 7.2 according to Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency and 7.4 according to the US Geological Survey. It struck off the east coast, 25km south of Hualien, a city of about 100,000 people. At least 10 people remain unaccounted for.
Natural disasters are supposed to be great levellers, rendering victims equally helpless whether rich or poor. Images from Taiwan last week suggested this may not always hold true: 12 people died, compared with 88,000 killed in a quake in Sichuan, across the Taiwan Strait in China, in 2008.
The vast disparity can be explained in part by the strength of the Sichuan quake - magnitude 7.9 - and the fact that the Sichuan area is more heavily populated than Taiwan’s east coast. But a lot of the difference comes down to preparedness, including rules to make buildings resistant to earthquakes, according to seismologists and engineers. “Taiwan has a history of implementing seismic codes in their building stock,” Tiziana Rossetto, professor in earthquake engineering at University College London, said.
