TAIPEI, Taiwan — A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the east coast of Taiwan on Wednesday morning, killing nine people and leaving at least 143 trapped by rubble and debris, as the temblor triggered tsunami warnings as far away as Japan and the Philippines.
More than 70 quarry workers remained trapped overnight, authorities said.
The earthquake, the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years, struck in Hualien county — a scenic, sparsely populated coastal region — just before 8 a.m. The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey said measured 7.4 in magnitude, was felt in Shanghai and China’s southeastern provinces. Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration recorded the earthquake at 7.2 in magnitude.
Live cam footage and security cameras catch the moment a deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the east coast of Taiwan on April 3. (Video: Reuters)
Taiwan sits on the Ring of Fire, a region of the Pacific Ocean that is the world’s most seismically active zone. The quake was felt across the island, as far as 200 miles from the epicenter. In Taipei, shaking that lasted more than a minute sent panicked residents out of their homes. Students were evacuated from schools and sat in rows along sidewalks and playgrounds. More than 900 people were injured, mostly by falling objects, according to Taiwan’s National Fire Agency.
Previous, deadlier earthquakes
hit more densely populated areas
DEATHS IN PREVIOUS QUAKES
Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
SAMUEL GRANADOS AND JÚLIA LEDUR / THE WASHINGTON POST
Previous, deadlier earthquakes
hit more densely populated areas
DEATHS IN PREVIOUS QUAKES
Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
SAMUEL GRANADOS AND JÚLIA LEDUR / THE WASHINGTON POST
Previous, deadlier earthquakes hit more
densely populated areas
DEATHS IN PREVIOUS EARTHQUAKES
Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
SAMUEL GRANADOS AND JÚLIA LEDUR / THE WASHINGTON POST
Officials said the quake was the strongest to hit the island since 1999, when a 7.6-magnitude tremor struck central Taiwan, killing more than 2,400 people. After that earthquake, one of the worst in the island’s recent history, authorities mandated stricter building codes.
Those efforts could explain Wednesday’s relatively low death toll. Lu Chin-wen, an architect who helped with reconstruction after the 1999 quake, said structures built according to the new regulations were stronger and that may have helped. “If buildings are damaged but not destroyed, the casualties will be relatively fewer,” he said.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Taiwan’s eastern coast April 3, injuring hundreds of people, collapsing buildings and causing landslides. (Video: Naomi Schanen, Julie Yoon/The Washington Post)
In recent years, city governments have launched campaigns to upgrade older buildings to make them more earthquake-resistant. Since 2019, the government has been reviewing 36,000 buildings across Taiwan that were built before 1999 and proing subsidies to upgrade them.
Even in Hualien, one of Taiwan’s most earthquake-prone areas, residents were shocked by the strength of the shaking. On social media, users posted photos of partly collapsed buildings tilting dangerously as rescue workers raced to reach people inside. Local media reports also showed residents escaping their homes through windows.
Shi Yi-rong, 34, quickly left her apartment in a 16-story building in Hualien when she smelled gas leaking after the quake hit. She spent the day at a breakfast cafe with other terrified residents and planned to spend the evening at a friend’s place, where she could easily evacuate if needed. “I’m not going home today,” she said.
Another resident, Liang Kai-xiong, who runs a bed-and-breakfast, ran from his building when the earthquake struck. “I was panicking. There hasn’t been one that big for a long time,” he said.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit the east coast of Taiwan on April 3, causing a building to lean to one side. (Video: AP)
Lin Yuh-der, 36, a former political campaign worker in Hualien, said his first instinct when the shaking began was to evacuate all elderly family members from their home.
“Hualien is a place where earthquakes are frequent, but this one immediately struck me as unusual because it was long and shook vertically, up and down,” he said.
Within less than five hours after the quake, Taiwan recorded 76 aftershocks, some with a magnitude as high as 6.4. More than 300,000 households lost power, and commuters were stranded as metro lines and the island’s high-speed rail system suspended operations. Wu Chien-fu, director of the Central Weather Administration’s Seismology Center, said aftershocks of magnitude 6.5 to 7.0 were possible in the next three to four days.
At least 24 landslides were recorded across the island, bringing traffic to a standstill on the east coast as three highways were cut off and at least one bridge collapsed. Taiwan’s military was deployed to work with local governments on rescue efforts, while President Tsai Ing-wen advised residents not to take elevators and to “pay more attention” to their safety.
On Yonaguni, one of Japan’s Okinawa islands, an 11-inch tsunami hit 20 minutes after the initial quake, prompting Japanese authorities to advise residents to evacuate to higher ground. The Japanese Meteorological Agency later downgraded the tsunami warning for Okinawa to a tsunami advisory, indicating that anticipated tsunamis would not be as high as originally estimated.
On April 3, people evacuated to higher ground after a tsunami warning in Okinawa prefecture, Japan. (Video: AP)
Officials in the Philippines also initially warned residents in coastal areas to move to higher ground. About three hours after the earthquake, Taiwanese officials downgraded their tsunami warning and the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat had “largely passed.”
Taiwan, home to more than 23 million people, is a key manufacturing hub for many of the world’s advanced computer chips. A spokesperson for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, said that some plants had been evacuated and that some operations were suspended. Production was set to resume shortly, and none of the company’s high-end “lithography” machines, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are among the most complex pieces of equipment in the world, were damaged, TSMC said.
All nine casualties on Wednesday were in Hualien, a popular tourist destination, and were caused by falling rocks. Among them were three hikers and a worker at Taroko Gorge; two drivers whose cars were crushed by falling boulders; and one person at a mining site.
The quake comes just ahead of a four-day public holiday known as Tomb Sweeping Day, when residents travel home to honor late relatives and tend to their graves. Taiwan’s transportation minister, Wang Kwo-tsai, said authorities would use boats to transport people to and from Hualien for the holiday because of the blocked roads.
Inuma reported from Tokyo. Gerrit De Vynck in San Francisco contributed to this report.
