11-2-99
updated 7 am

TAIPEI, TAIWAN

Yet Another 6.9 Earthquake Shakes Taiwan...11/02/99

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - A large earthquake that shook Taiwan early Tuesday was strong enough to cause widespread damage, but didn't because of its location, experts said. The tremor measured 6.9 on the Richter scale, but no major building damage, injuries or deaths were reported. The earthquake caused a few brief power outages and other minor damage. It was centered deep in the Pacific Ocean, 27 miles northeast of the city of Taitung in southeast Taiwan, said Lu Pei-ling, a seismologist with the Central Weather Bureau. Still, the quake was close enough to the island to shake people awake at 1:53 a.m. local time and knock things off shelves in the capital, Taipei, 90 miles north of Taitung.

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Taiwan Continues to Have Large Aftershocks

Taiwan Quake Hurt Tourism Industry

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) (October 24, 1999)- Taiwan's worst earthquake in decades laid waste to key sightseeing areas and scared away tourists, costing the industry some $281 million, tourism figures showed Sunday.

Following the quake, 210,000 foreign travelers canceled their visits to Taiwan, and local travel by Taiwanese has dropped by 90 percent, according to industry statistics.

Government support is needed to reassure visitors and rebuild the island's tourism infrastructure, said Lee Ching-sung, head of a tourist association who met with government leaders in an appeal for help.

No figures for the size of Taiwan's industry were given, but the island received about 2.3 million visitors in 1998.

The Sept. 21 earthquake caused an estimated $9.2 billion in damage, equal to 3.3 percent of the island's gross domestic product, according to government figures.

The magnitude 7.6 tremor killed more than 2,300 persons and damaged 82,000 housing units, with its epicenter in central Nantou county, where agriculture and tourism are the mainstays of the local economy.

Meanwhile, southern Chiayi, where a strong earthquake injured scores of people last week, was rocked by a series of aftershocks Sunday morning, the Central Weather Bureau reported.

Ten tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of 5.2, struck the region starting just after 1:00 a.m., the bureau said. The aftershocks caused no damage or injuries.

The quakes were among 275 aftershocks that have struck the area, 180 miles south of Taipei.

AP-NY-10-24-99 0823EDT

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10-22-99

Earthquake Jolts Southern Taiwan

More Than 200 Injured; No Deaths Reported

By ANNIE HUANG

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Oct. 22, 99) - A strong tremor shook earthquake-rattled Taiwan today, damaging schools, blacking out thousands of homes and injuring about 200 people, officials and local media said. No deaths were immediately reported.

The 6.4-magnitude quake that struck near the southern city of Chiayi was not related to the stronger tremor that killed more than 2,300 people one month ago in central Taiwan, seismologists said.

Damage from today's quake was minor compared to the 7.6-magnitude tremor on Sept. 21. Only a few buildings were damaged today, while thousands were destroyed last month.

About 80 aftershocks followed today's tremor but only a few were strong enough to be felt, including 5.1- and 6-magnitude tremors, the Central Weather Bureau said.

Chiayi, with a population of 263,000 and located 180 miles south of Taipei, has been hit by several strong quakes in the past century, and seismologists have said it was due for another big one soon.

The island's main evening newspapers reported today that about 200 people were taken to hospitals. Most suffered only minor injuries, TVBS television reported.

The quake knocked over bottles of chemicals in a lab at Chungcheng University in Chiayi, causing an explosion and a fire that was quickly extinguished.

''Everything fell off the shelves and the glassware shattered and everyone ran out of the laboratory,'' one student told TVBS.

Another student told TVBS, ''I knew it wasn't a minor quake because the shaking kept getting stronger.''

A section of a high school collapsed, injuring seven people, officials said.

The first floor of a shipping company's two-story building also gave way, but there were no reports of serious injuries.

''We thought one person was trapped in the building, and we were calling for him, but five minutes later he escaped through the back of the building,'' the company's owner told TVBS.

Schools in Chiayi closed and sent children home for the rest of the afternoon.

About 90,000 homes lost power.

In 1906, a quake of magnitude 7.1 hit near Chiayi, killing 1,258 people. Another tremor, of 7.1 magnitude, killed 358 in the city in 1941.

Located along the earthquake-prone Pacific Rim and crisscrossed by 51 fault lines, Taiwan is rattled by scores of earthquakes each year, most harmless.

Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the total energy released by an earthquake, as indicated by ground motion recorded on seismographs. An increase of one digit in the scale represents a tenfold increase in the strength of the quake.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6 can cause severe damage in a populated area.

AP-NY-10-22-99 0517EDT

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9-20-99

TAIWAN HAS MOVED

The Taiwan quake killed more than 2,300 and damaged 82,000 housing units.

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TAIPEI, Oct. 11, 99 (Kyodo) - The massive earthquake that hit Taiwan last month has noticeably altered the island's topography, compressing it in northwestern direction while stretching it north-south, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

Locations along the north-south Chelungpu fault line that ruptured over a distance of 80 kilometers in the magnitude 7.7 predawn quake were moved in a northwestern direction by up to 8.97 meters, local newspapers quoted the latest ministry survey as saying.

The survey, which is based on measurements by satellite-based global positioning (GPS), also found the thrust of the quake compressed the area west of the fault by some 30 centimeters, making the island thinner, but longer.

Dislocation of land along the ruptured fault, including the complete vanishing of some plots, will necessitate a new survey of some 800,000 pieces of land, ministry officials were quoted as saying.

In a related development geophysicist Tsai Yi-ben, professor at National Central University, told reporters the largest upward slip on the fault reached more than 12 meters.

Tsai, who called the dislocations caused by the fault rupture ''quite spectacular,'' said the difference between upward movement on the east side of the fault and downward movement on the western side averaged 4 to 5 meters.

The fault rupture has created some interesting new geological features, he said, pointing to a section of the Tachia River in Changhua County where the  quake created a several-meter-high waterfall from a once flat riverbed, while lifting a nearby bridge by 8 meters.

Another eye-catching example is a running track at a school in Wufeng township in Taichung County that now has an uphill section climbing some 2 meters above its previous altitude.

''I think it should be used for some special running event commemorating the quake in the future,'' Tsai suggested.

AP-NY-10-11-99 0808EDT

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Taiwan Quake Causes $9.2B in Damage

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - (October 12, 1999)  Taiwan's earthquake caused an estimated $9.2 billion in damage, equal to 3.3 percent of the island's gross domestic product, the government said.

The damage to buildings and homes was the costliest, totaling $6.6 billion, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.

The remaining losses were reported by industry, agriculture and transportation, the agency said Monday in a report.

The total damage estimate from the 7.6-magnitude quake on Sept. 21 was much lower than the $100 billion in damage in Japan after a 7.2-magnitude quake struck the southern city of Kobe in 1995, the report said.

The Taiwan quake killed more than 2,300 and damaged 82,000 housing units.

It also noticeably altered the island's topography, the Interior Ministry said.

Some areas along the Chelungpu fault line, which that ruptured over a stretch of 50 miles in central Taiwan, moved northwest by nearly 9 yards, ministry officials said.

Tsai Yi-ben, a geophysicist at National Central University, said the rupture created some new features, including a waterfall that was once a flat riverbed in the Tachia River in Changhua County.

AP-NY-10-12-99 0425EDT

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Dog Survives 7 Days After Quake

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 28, 99) - A dog named ''Tora'' survived seven days without food and water, trapped in a building that was knocked off its foundations and partially toppled in Taiwan's lethal earthquake, a newspaper said today.

''Tora,'' meaning ''Tiger'' in Japanese, was saved Monday when his owner released him from the cage he was held in when the earthquake toppled the 16-story apartment building in the central town of Touliu.

To date, the longest surviving humans were two brothers pulled out of a Taipei high-rise six days after being buried alive.

The Taipei Times said residents of the wrecked building in Touliu were allowed to go back to their apartments to retrieve valuables abandoned when the earthquake struck early last Tuesday. More than 2,100 were killed in the trembler.

One of the residents, a man who gave his name only as Yang, rushed back to his apartment and saved his dog, which was given food, water and a bath.

Yang reportedly said Tora had been locked in a cage on the balcony of his apartment without food or water for a week.

The first to fifth floors of the structure collapsed, but those above remained slanting at a dangerous angle. Police allowed residents to return to their building for just 30 minutes. They were carried to and from the building by a crane.

AP-NY-09-28-99 0624EDT

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Cost-Cutting Hurt Taiwan Buildings

By ANNIE HUANG

.c The Associated Press

TAICHUNG, Taiwan (Sept. 28, 99) - Gleaming new high-rises with gorgeous views crumbled and toppled in Taiwan's deadly earthquake, while older buildings nearby emerged still standing erect.

That has many saying it was cost-cutting by contractors that led to the collapse of the towers, rather than the punch of the Sept. 21 quake, which left 2,100 dead.

Taiwan's government has either arrested or barred the movement abroad of 18 contractors, architects and surveyors over building violations that caused damage in the quake.

''The problem we have today is not a natural disaster, but the ugliness of some human beings,'' Hsu Tse-tai, a victim of the quake, said from his wheelchair, his head, arms and legs wrapped in bandages.

The 32-year-old doctor was rescued after being trapped for three days in the rubble of his apartment building - which was built by one of those arrested for shoddy construction.

The 7.6-magnitude quake exposed substandard materials hidden inside some newer buildings, revealing empty vegetable oil cans, wads of newspapers and plastic foam stuffed inside support columns and walls in place of concrete or brick.

''The earthquake exposed many of the problems which had long been concealed under the buildings' glossy surfaces,'' said Lee Yung-lai, a landscape designer for apartment complexes in Taichung.

''Everyone in the industry knew about it, but they were either unwilling to expose the culprits or felt there was nothing they could do to stop it,'' Lee said.

Members of an American search and rescue team said the wrecked buildings they saw in Taiwan were more dangerous than those they encountered in Turkey after its recent quake, partly because of shoddy construction work.

''Maybe they were trying to save some money on concrete,'' said Robert Rojas, a firefighter from Miami who was on the team. ''That's horrendous.''

Even the crumbly concrete in Turkey was ''a heck of a lot better than newspapers and oil cans'' that some contractors used in Taiwan, Rojas said.

Other construction problems found in some new high-rise buildings were poor foundations, often embedded in reclaimed marshes or farmland, and inadequately supported lower floors.

When the lower floors of a high-rise collapsed, the structure above then leaned over, either slamming onto adjoining buildings or hanging dangerously in space.

Dozens perished when the two Golden Paris high-rises in Taichung collapsed and fell on several houses. The city is located in the hardest-hit area, 80 miles southwest of Taipei.

Lin Yi-hsing, who lives in the area, said the two buildings were constructed 10 years ago on marshy land, with contractors working quickly. Floors were completed at the rate of one every 10 days, he said.

''None of us would buy a flat no matter how low the price. But others did not know,'' he said.

Huang Wen-chi, a seller of construction material, proudly showed a reporter a three-story building constructed 30 years ago that did not have a single crack in the walls.

The old buildings were more solidly built because many owners personally oversaw construction, demanding the use of thicker steel bars and more concrete, he said.

Construction firms during the latest building boom often obtained a license for a 12-story building because higher standards were required for taller buildings, but then illegally added more stories to them, he said. Corruption is widely believed to be rife in the construction industry, and Taiwan's laws hold a builder responsible for a building's safety for only 15 years.

Lee, the landscape designer, said vegetable oil cans were widely used in Taiwan, as builders took advantage of a loophole in building codes that allows less solid concrete in decorative pillars.

Collapsed pillars also exposed steel bars that were loosely fastened together rather than being securely welded, Lee said.

''Our building codes failed to keep pace with society's rapid changes,'' he said.

AP-NY-09-28-99 0331EDT

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Taiwan Faces Hardships After Quake

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 28, 99) - Taiwan faced a plunging stock market and rationing of water and electricity today, one week after the island was shaken by a powerful earthquake that took more than 2,100 lives.

Months of relief and reconstruction likely will be needed to heal the deep scars left by the quake. To better cope with a host of problems, Taiwan's legislature today overwhelmingly approved an emergency decree that overrides existing laws for six months, allowing the government to commandeer vacant land and dispatch troops to keep law and order.

The Taiwan Power Company began daily 6 1/2-hour power outages in eight northern counties and cities, including the capital, Taipei, according to the newspaper Taiwan News.

The 7.6-magnitude quake toppled a key power station in central Taiwan, reducing electrical capacity and causing daily losses worth millions of dollars to the country's vital manufacturing industry.

Among the hardest hit companies were some of the world's leading manufacturers of computer chips, many located in the Hsinchu Science Park. The semiconductor makers' stocks took another plunge on Taiwan's stock exchange today, the second day of trading since the earthquake.

Blue chips fell 2.3 percent amid concerns that the high-tech companies that are the stars of Taiwanese industry will see big revenue losses as they scramble to reopen plants.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Taiwan Water Supply Corp. reported that water rationing would be enforced in the hardest-hit areas. The water provider said more than 400,000, or 36 percent, of homes in central Taiwan lacked reliable water supplies.

One reservoir and several major pipelines were damaged by the temblor, which left the heaviest damage in the island's mountainous central area.

Coming under fire for its poor response to the disaster, the government of President Lee Teng-hui on Saturday announced the emergency decree, which also empowers the government to issue relief bonds and severely punish people illegally profiting from the sale of basic goods on the black market.

The legislature, dominated by Lee's ruling Kuomintang Party, approved the executive order by a vote of 201 to two, with two abstentions. But some legislators had reservations.

''I believe this is not an emergency decree. It is a measure of expediency, actually a long-term measure that hinders the development of democracy,'' a ruling party lawmaker, Chou Hsi-wei, said during a heated, four-hour debate.

Military officials, however, denied the state of emergency would interfere with Taiwan's 12-year-old democracy. ''This is neither military rule nor martial law,'' Defense Ministry spokesman Kong Min-ting said at a press conference.

Rescuers continued to work today despite dimming hopes of finding survivors.

Taiwan's Disaster Management Center said today that the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks left at least 2,101 people dead and 8,713 injured. It also reported that 141 people were still trapped and 12 were missing.

Rescuers said a lack of proper equipment and a central command system hindered efforts to find survivors.

Presidential spokesman Ting Yuan-chao allowed that rescue efforts ''were a little disorganized,'' but he accused the media of exaggerating the problem.

''We really must try harder the next time and learn from this,'' he said.

AP-NY-09-28-99 0557EDT

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Strong Aftershock Kills 5 in Taiwan

Two Brothers Rescued After 5 Days

By Jeffrey Parker

Reuters

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 26, 99) - Rescuers pulled two brothers alive from the wreckage of a Taipei hotel Sunday, more than five days after the mammoth earthquake that buried them and thousands of others.

Taiwan's death toll continued to mount, reaching 2,031 as a strong aftershock toppled buildings already weakened by Tuesday's quake and dislodged landslides. The new tremor killed five.

Officials ordered measures to prevent panic selling when stock trading resumes Monday for the first time since the 7.6 Richter magnitude quake, which halted industrial production with sweeping power outages -- raising fears of a market rout.

Worries of torrential rains were unfounded, as Tropical Storm Cam steered clear of Taiwan but hammered Hong Kong.

The breakfast-hour aftershock, at 6.8 on the Richter scale, qualified as a serious quake in its own right. But it was the third of that magnitude among some 7,100 tremors since the big jolt and barely distracted search and rescue efforts.

CHEERS AS MAN WALKS FREE

Cheers rose from rescue workers and family keeping vigil outside Taipei's Sungshan Hotel as Sun Chi-kuang, 20, walked free on his own, and again when his brother Sun Chi-feng, 25, was pulled clear on a stretcher a few minutes later.

Between long swigs of bottled water, the first man embraced and thanked his rescuers, who shielded his eyes from searing daylight he had not seen since Monday -- the eve of the giant quake.

Sun said he and his brother had been playing poker when their world crashed down around them 130 hours earlier.

Officials said the Suns staved off death by consuming rotting apples, their own urine and water that trickled down from firefighting efforts above ground. Both were in relatively good shape.

Before Sunday's rescue, it had been nearly two days since anyone had been found alive anywhere in Taiwan, and even longer at the Sungshan complex in downtown Taipei.

HOPES REKINDLED

Rescuers had all but given up hope Saturday, moving in with heavy equipment to pull down the building, but backed off after sensing life inside.

''After we found there were still signs of life, we started to dig by hand,'' said Mayor Ma Ying-jeou. ''There is still hope.''

The rescue rekindled hope among relatives of 50 others still believed entombed at the Sungshan, but one family's dream was dashed hours later when the wreckage yielded its 48th corpse.

Rescue work proceeded islandwide for 175 people feared buried in rubble, while organizers of a massive relief effort sought to clear bottlenecks and coordination miscues that had supplies piling high in some areas and non-existent in others.

Parts of hardest-hit Nantou and Taichung counties resembled a wasteland, with thousands of homeless camped in open spaces and sanitary conditions worsening by the day for lack of water.

''In the village we didn't see any soldier to help us and we don't know where the doctors are,'' said Yeh Yan-hsiung, who trudged from a tea-growing mountain village to get milk for a newborn baby and other supplies from a Nantou relief center.

As expected, President Lee Teng-hui signed an emergency order Saturday to speed relief efforts. The order was only the fourth since the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to communist forces on the mainland.

The stock restrictions, ordered by the finance ministry, will limit price declines to 3.5 percent a day until October 8; the upward volatility limit was left unchanged at seven percent.

''We've made this adjustment to avoid panic-selling of stocks,'' finance minister Paul Chiu said bluntly.

AFTERSHOCK TOPPLES BUILDING

Sunday's aftershock toppled a 12-story block in Mingchien village in Nantou county, but there appeared to be no life lost as it had been abandoned as unsafe after Tuesday's quake.

Boulders jarred loose by Sunday's tremor killed two people in Tsaoling village in central Yunlin county, relief officials said. The aftershock killed three people elsewhere, they said.

In the central Taichung county town of Tali, the shock sent searchers leaping for their lives from an housing block they were inspecting as heavy debris cascaded from an adjacent building.

Search teams began pulling back from some buildings, many highly unstable and dangerous, and wrecking balls were going to work in the hard-hit central region -- despite anguished protests from people convinced their loved ones were still alive inside.

As the hunt for survivors wound down, relief officials focused on shelter and supplies for the estimated 80,000 homeless who have been camping in parks, schools and football pitches.

Conditions were deteriorating rapidly in the tent cities that have sprung up. People said there were not enough tents, blankets or medical supplies and they had to use storm drains as latrines as there was no water for bathing or flushing toilets.

Relief organizations were rushing vaccines and antibiotics to the area, fearing outbreaks of disease in the unhygienic conditions.

Sunday's aftershock cut power supplies to a million homes as well as many public buildings that were being used for emergency operations, officials said.

Reut13:57 09-26-99

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Taiwan Enacts Emergency Decree

By DIRK BEVERIDGE

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) (Sept. 25, 99)- Taiwan's president on Saturday signed a rare emergency decree that gives the military increased powers to maintain order and creates severe sentences for black-marketeers who try to take advantage of the destruction caused by a devastating earthquake here.

Chaos from the quake continued Sunday morning when a 6.5-magnitude aftershock, the biggest so far, rattled central Taiwan, killing two motorists in a landslide and collapsing several buildings already weakened from Tuesday's quake. At least 15 people were injured.

To maintain order amid the country's wreckage and confusion President Lee Teng-hui and his Cabinet passed the emergency decree, which was imposed only three times in the past four decades. The decree, which supersedes all existing laws for six months, must still be approved by the legislature, which Lee controls.

The decree threatens to increase punishment for people who charge exorbitant prices for necessities that have become scarce. It also would allow troops and police to be dispatched to maintain order in stricken areas.

But it also may worry people in a nation where martial law ended just a little more than a decade ago. There have been few incidents of looting or other problems, and Lee sought to play down any concerns he was being too heavy-handed.

``The military is also the government, you know,'' he said.

Lee signed the decree Saturday night, using a traditional Chinese ink pen that resembles a paintbrush. With the expanded powers, he said, soldiers could operate more smoothly in relief efforts following the 7.6-magnitude quake that killed about 2,000 people.

``If aircraft are needed, we fly in aircraft,'' Lee said. ``If soldiers are needed, we send soldiers. Without the army there's no other way to work.''

The emergency decree will come up within the next few days in the legislature, which is firmly controlled by Lee's ruling Nationalist Party.

In Taiwan's third largest city, Taichung, many residents were still sleeping in open spaces, fearing aftershocks. Several thousand have already shaken Taiwan, including the most severe Sunday morning centered near the same, mountainous area of central Taiwan that bore the brunt of Tuesday's earthquake.

People rushed out of buildings in panic, donned motorcycle helmets and gathered in open spaces after the 7:52 a.m. aftershock, which had a magnitude of 6.5, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

An 18-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were killed when their car was buried by a shock-triggered landslide in the central Taiwan county of Yulin, a radio report said. The Broadcast Corporation of China said two others were injured on the same road but gave no further details.

Two Taiwanese rescue workers were injured by falling rubble from a crippled building in the town of Dali. They were rushed from the site in stretchers.

Another 11 persons were injured by flying glass and other debris inside a rice wine distillery in the town of Puli. Officials feared an explosion might occur after a gas leak was detected following the temblor, corporation broadcast said.

Power was cut in parts of Taichung. A high-rise building in the town of Mingchien, emptied after sustaining earlier damage, toppled across a major road and fell into a farmer's credit cooperative, radio reported.

There were no reports of casualties at that site or at a Buddhist temple in Mingchien that also collapsed. Mingchien is located in Nantou County, one of the hardest hit.

Though hopes of finding survivors from Tuesday's quake faded Saturday, Taiwanese and foreign teams continued to search for signs of life beneath tons of concrete and steel.

The Disaster Management Center said late Saturday that 2,002 people had been killed, 8,544 injured, 209 were trapped under rubble and 23 were still missing from Tuesday's earthquake. Officials had previously cited a death toll of nearly 2,200 people, but that was reduced early Saturday after the government discovered that two hard-hit counties had double-counted some victims.

Besides continuing search and rescue operations, local officials, civilian teams and soldiers were struggling to provide adequate shelter, food and health facilities.

Health officials in the central Taiwan town of Tungshih reported garbage strewn in the streets, unclean water, lack of running water in toilets and other health hazards they said could bring on a host of ailments.

Some 10,800 housing units were totally destroyed or severely damaged in Tuesday's quake, officials said.

The emergency decree signed Saturday will make it easier for the government to acquire private land where housing could be built for homeless quake victims. And Vice Premier Liu Chao-shiuan, speaking on television, said the government would make available low- or no-interest loans to those who wanted to rebuild their homes.

AP-NY-09-25-99 2339EDT

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Emergency Decree Expected in Taiwan

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) (Sept. 25, 99)- Under fire for its inadequate rescue efforts, the government was expected to impose an emergency decree to better cope with the aftermath of an earthquake that killed nearly 2,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, a spokesman said today.

The decree, imposed only three times in the past four decades, would supersede all existing laws for six months, mete out severe punishment on black-marketers and allow troops and police to be dispatched to maintain order in stricken areas.

The decrees, approved by the Cabinet after a 5-hour meeting, must still go before the country's legislature to take effect. The body, which has the power to veto or modify them, is expected to meet Tuesday.

With more than 100 hours passed since the earthquake rocked Taiwan early Tuesday, hopes of finding survivors were fading. Still, Taiwanese and foreign teams continued to search for signs of life beneath tons of concrete and steel.

The Disaster Management Center said today that 1,965 people had been killed, 8,541 injured, 301 were trapped under rubble and 33 were still missing. Officials at the center said they dropped the death toll after discovering that two adjacent counties had both reported some of the same dead.

Providing one of the few bright spots was the dramatic rescue Friday of a 6-year-old boy from the rubble of an earthquake-battered apartment building. But it seemed virtually certain his parents and two sisters had perished.

Rescuers saved Chang Ching-hung after he spent 87 hours in the wreckage of a building where his parents and two sisters were buried in Dali, central Taiwan.

South Korean and Japanese emergency workers spent six hours digging the boy out, and said he told them: ``I need water. Why am I here, and where are my parents?''

Searchers later found what were almost certainly the bodies of his entire family, but positive identification was pending.

Many victims and their friends and relatives said the government had botched its reaction to the catastrophe, moving too slowly when the 7.6-magnitude quake struck and then working inefficiently and without proper central coordination.

The government admits it was not fully prepared to cope with a disaster of such magnitude. Taiwan is prone to periodic quakes, but most occur harmlessly under the sea.

Besides continued search and rescue operations, local officials, civilian teams and soldiers are struggling to provide adequate shelter, food and health facilities in many areas, including remote, mountainous regions of central Taiwan.

Health officials in the central Taiwan town of Tungshih reported garbage strewn in the streets, unclean water, lack of running water in toilets and other health hazards they said could bring on a host of ailments.

In Taiwan's third largest city of Taichung, many residents were still sleeping in safe, open spaces, fearing powerful aftershocks could still rock the island. Several thousand have, but caused no known fatalities.

Many shops, department stores and restaurants, including McDonald's outlets, were still closed in the city.

An emergency decree would allow the government to more easily acquire private land where housing could be built for homeless quake victims. Officials say that some 10,800 housing units were totally destroyed or severely damaged.

Public security has not proved a problem in wake of the quake. Only minor, scattered looting has been reported.

The decree was earlier imposed after devastating floods in 1958, when the United States and Taiwan cut off diplomatic relations in 1979 and when then-President Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1989.

Taiwan's Central News Agency quoted Vice President Lien Chan, who proposed the decree be issued, as saying the move had nothing to do with next year's presidential elections. Lien is a candidate.

The emergency decree may draw fire from elements of Taiwanese society, sensitive to anything that smacks of authoritarianism.

Democratic rule was only introduced in 1987 following 38 years of martial law justified by threats of an invasion from mainland China.

``Many areas are seriously affected. Tremendous loss of property. It certainly conforms to the definition of the state of emergency according to the constitution,'' Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou was quoted as saying in the China Times newspaper.

He said the decree would have neither political implications nor affect peoples' daily lives.

AP-NY-09-25-99 0649EDT

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Boy Survives 87 Hours in Taiwan's Rubble

6-Year-Old Was Buried With Parents, Two Sisters

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

.c The Associated Press

DALI, Taiwan (Sept. 24, 99) - A 6-year-old boy was freed from the rubble of an earthquake-struck apartment building today after being buried with his parents and two sisters for 87 hours.

Using their hands to remove concrete and other debris, South Korean and Japanese search and rescue teams were able to pull him out of the debris after an almost six-hour effort.

Two doctors, a Singaporean and South Korean, were inside the wrecked building treating him for possible trauma and other injuries before he was driven off to a hospital.

The fate of his parents and siblings was not known.

More than 2,100 persons perished in Tuesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake. More than 6,000 housing units were demolished, many within high-rise structures that may have been poorly constructed.

Speaking to rescuers in a weak voice, Chang Ching-hung earlier said he could move his arms but not his body.

The teams, two of the 25 foreign rescue teams that have rushed to Taiwan's aid, used their bare hands to pry him loose.

His aunt, who was not in the collapsed apartment, later spoke to the boy. She said he was very thirsty and asked for water. But the rescuers could not reach close enough to give him any.

They had feared that bringing in machinery might unleash a torrent of concrete and other rubble, further endangering the young survivor.

Chang's family lived on the second floor of the high-rise apartment, the bottom floors of which collapsed and sank below street level.

Officials say more than 2,200 persons have been rescued in operations some have criticized as being too slow to get started and not professional enough.

President Lee Teng-hui, who visited the site a few hours before the boy was pulled out, has criticized lack of central coordination and inefficient use of supply and manpower in rescue operations.

But many Taiwanese teams have worked tirelessly since the earthquake struck.

AP-NY-09-24-99 0706EDT

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Hope for Quake Survivors Fading

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -(Sept. 24, 99)  On a day traditionally reserved for joyous celebration, Taiwanese today vented anger at their government's bungling of rescue efforts and mourned the more than 2,100 people who perished in a deadly earthquake.

``The government reacted too slowly. It was many hours before they sent in troops to rescue victims and many hours until they sent helicopters,'' said Tsai Chia-ching as Buddhist monks chanted prayers for the dead at a Taipei memorial service.

But there was at least one bright note when rescuers pulled a 6-year-old boy from a wrecked apartment building where he and his family had been buried for 87 hours. Rushed to a hospital, he was in stable condition, but suffering from trauma and dehydration.

The government admits it was not fully prepared to cope with a disaster of such magnitude, even though Taiwan is prone to periodic quakes.

After inspecting disaster areas Thursday, President Lee Teng-hui criticized the lack of central coordination and inefficient use of manpower and supplies, the official news agency said.

He ordered the set up of a ``9-21'' earthquake rescue and relief operation center under direct Cabinet control. The earthquake struck Sept. 21.

What is normally a day of happiness, family reunions and feasting, the Autumn Moon Festival today was instead a time of grieving for many. The flag above the presidential palace in Taipei, the capital, flew at half-mast for the second day.

At a food pickup point, a big box of pineapple mooncakes sat open, another sad reminder that today should have been a holiday with family celebrations.

The round pastries are traditionally eaten during the festival, the Chinese equivalent of Thanksgiving in the United States, when the harvest moon is said to be at its fullest and most serene.

``Making a new, better life for us is the most important thing now,'' said Ong Chi-chai, gathering up donated food amid hundreds of tents in the stricken farming community of Chungliao. ``This holiday is no longer important.''

Also ignoring the holiday were thousands of Taiwanese and foreign rescue workers who were finding few hopeful signs that many more survivors of Tuesday's earthquake could be found under collapsed buildings and landslides.

Taiwan has had more than 4,500 aftershocks, but they were gradually getting weaker.

More than 80 hours into the crisis, the focus began to shift from rescue to helping the hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors.

``Three days ago they knew where my friend was but still he is not out,'' said a man who would only give his surname Chung as he watched a crane dig at a pile of rubble that contained his school buddy. Rescuers had given up hope of finding the man alive.

The Disaster Management Center said today that 2,151 people had been killed, 8,140 were injured, 311 trapped under rubble and 33 missing.

The official number of trapped stood in glaring contrast to media reports, often quoting on-site rescue workers, which said hundreds, if not more, were still buried under collapsed buildings and landslides.

Taiwan's third largest city, Taichung, was bracing for a major influx of the dead from isolated, mountain areas where mud and landslides reportedly buried large numbers of villagers.

Government officials have said more than 100,000 people were displaced by the 7.6-magnitude earthquake.

Some people said it could take months, if not years, for their lives to return to normal. ``We're hoping the government will help us rebuild our homes,'' said farmer Chen Jung, who lost his home.

Chen was among some 500 homeless in Chungliao's tent city, which bustled today with people lugging boxes of fruit, diapers, bottled water and other donated supplies.

Amid allegations that shoddy construction work was to blame for many deaths, authorities arrested a contractor responsible for three buildings that collapsed, burying about 100 people. The buildings had been made with substandard steel rods, and authorities found crumpled up vegetable oil cans had been used in place of bricks.

The official Central News Agency said teams from 25 countries and international organizations were working in Taiwan, with more on the way.

``Politically isolated Taiwan has felt the warmth from the international community following the natural disaster,'' the agency said, referring to the fact that many countries cut off diplomatic ties under pressure from China.

The government announced it would accept a $100,000 donation from the Chinese Red Cross but rejected offers of rescue and medical personnel, saying teams from many countries were already in place.

Taiwan also turned down official Beijing offers of material assistance. Taiwan rejects China's claim that the island nation is a province of the mainland and will one day be integrated.

AP-NY-09-24-99 0828EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rescuers Battle Clock in Taiwan

2,300 Believed Still Trapped Under Debris

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 23, 99) - As more cries for help turned to ominous silence, Taiwanese and foreign rescue teams battled the clock today to save 2,300 trapped victims of a devastating earthquake that already has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Hopes of finding large numbers of survivors diminished as fewer moans or cries for help were heard from within collapsed houses and high-rises, more than 60 hours after the quake struck.

The Disaster Management Center said 2,042 persons were killed and 6,000 injured by Taiwan's quake, with another 100,000 left homeless.

The Tuesday temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 - about the same strength as the devastating tremor that killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey last month.

Although there were some 2,300 people believed trapped in buildings, Wednesday's rescue efforts yielded only nine who were safely brought out, officials said.

And in some isolated, mountain villages of central Taiwan, the worst-hit region of the island, rescue efforts have just begun.

Rescuers had to walk for hours through rugged terrain Wednesday to reach the tragic village of Kuoshin, where a massive flow of mud and rock off three hillsides killed 60 villagers and buried 40 others, the China Times reported.

Only 50 people, a third of the population, are known to have survived as the hills virtually collapsed and filled up a valley, the newspaper said.

One mother, identified as Mrs. Chang, said she and her two daughters were carried along on the slide for a half-mile ''as if sitting on a magic carpet.''

The village is located in Nantou County, where 830 people were killed, while more than 970 died in neighboring Taichung County.

These two hardest-hit counties are to receive the bulk of $90 million the government says it has allocated for immediate disaster relief.

Many people have complained that not enough was done to rescue trapped relatives. Some people have stood outside wrecked buildings, listening in vain to cries from trapped friends and family. In many cases, the screams faded into ominous silence.

Inspecting damage in the town of Touliu, President Lee Teng-hui was confronted by an angry woman who asked for a full investigation into why the building where her elderly in-laws were trapped had collapsed.

''My parents are in there. They are dead,'' she told Lee. ''If we don't pay attention to these problems, it's going to happen again and again.''

The woman, who gave her name only as Liao, said her family rushed back from Los Angeles, where they reside, as soon as the earthquake struck to be with her in-laws.

Many high-rises were left toppled partway in the quake, leaning over in bizarre angles against other structures - perhaps the result of stout construction on top of a weak foundation, rescue teams said.

Engineers and seismologists from around the world are flying to Taiwan to find out why some buildings failed while others survived the quake.

Robert Geller, a professor of geophysics at Tokyo University, said that weak, wide open spaces on the ground floor can leave an entire building very vulnerable to the kind of potent, sideways motion generated by earthquakes.

The ground floor of many collapsed buildings may have been very weak structurally because of the presence of a garage or a shop, Geller said.

The Health Department warned of possible epidemics from lack of water and improper care of corpses. With morgues overflowing, medics have been forced to lay bodies on the floors of hospitals and community centers.

Water shortages were predicted for the island's third-largest city, Taichung, after the quake ruptured a section of the Shihkang Reservoir. Water was streaming through the opening in the dam, said the United Daily News.

''We are just trying to bring peace and calm back into these people's lives,'' said Miao Yun, leading a group of Buddhist nuns and monks through Taichung's largest hospital where 100 people were being treated.

The group, dressed in yellow and gray robes, gave out wooden-beaded prayer bracelets and prayed over bodies of battered victims.

Rescue efforts were hampered Wednesday when three strong aftershocks rocked the island, forcing emergency workers to move back from collapsed structures where they were trying to save as many lives as possible.

Assisting hard-pressed local teams were more than 500 specialists from 14 countries, the United Nations and the International Red Cross. Fifty sniffer dogs accompanied some of the teams.

A U.S. crew that had just returned home from Turkey's earthquake disaster had barely touched down when it found a man trapped in what used to be the fifth floor of a 16-story apartment house in Touliu.

The man was dug out after eight hours of work, but the team searched in vain for hours for a 1-year-old boy also thought to be buried.

Japan, South Korea, Israel, Singapore, Switzerland, the Philippines, Russia and Turkey are other countries providing search and rescue support for beleaguered local teams.

China, which has not wavered from its goal of annexing Taiwan, offered condolences and aid to quake victims.

The fresh jolts triggered massive mudslides and cracked Sun Moon Lake Reservoir, one of Taiwan's largest dams and a prime tourist attraction. Restaurants and temples set amid mountains were reportedly destroyed or severely damaged.

AP-NY-09-23-99 0604EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Strong Aftershocks Hit Taiwan

Earthquake Death Toll Tops 2,000

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 22, 99) - Rescue teams streamed into Taiwan today - including a U.S. crew that pulled a man from his collapsed apartment - as three strong aftershocks to the country's devastating earthquake forced terror-stricken residents into the streets.

Rescue efforts were complicated by today's aftershocks, which triggered mudslides, cracked one of Taiwan's largest reservoirs and forced evacuations. The aftershocks, with magnitudes of 6.8, 6.1 and 6.0, were the strongest of more than 2,000 that have rocked the island.

The death toll from Tuesday's quake climbed to 2,003 people, with 4,400 injured, officials said. Some 2,600 people were believed to be trapped in rubble, but rescuers were finding more bodies than survivors as they bored into collapsed houses and high-rise apartment complexes across central Taiwan.

The day's rescue efforts yielded just nine people pulled alive from the wreckage.

Crews from Fairfax Co., Va., and Miami-Dade, Fla., arrived in Taiwan today and rescued a man who had been trapped 48 hours inside a caved-in apartment building in the town of Touliu.

''What happened to my building?'' 33-year-old survivor Hsu Tse-kai asked repeatedly as the crews spent eight hours digging him out of a four-story chunk of building that had been compressed into about 10 feet of rubble.

The rescue workers then started digging deeper in search of a 1-year-old boy, saying they were encouraged by listening devices that appeared to pick up the sound of a child's toy.

Among the 14 countries that dispatched earthquake specialists were the United States, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Israel and the Philippines.

The Central News Agency placed the number of foreign specialists in the country at about 500, with more scheduled to arrive.

U.S. Geological Survey officials said Tuesday's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 - about the same strength as the devastating tremor that killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey last month - although Taiwanese seismologists initially put the magnitude at 7.3.

Many of the foreign experts had assisted in rescue operations in Turkey.

After today's aftershocks, state radio said cracks had been discovered in one of Taiwan's largest reservoirs, the Sun Moon Lake Reservoir, and warned downstream residents to evacuate their homes. It said water would be released from the reservoir as a precautionary measure.

The radio report also said officials were evacuating two towns in west-central Taiwan where streams of mud slid into a river. Officials feared the blocked water flow would cause flooding.

The aftershocks also were felt in Taipei, shaking buildings and sending many frightened citizens out of their homes and into the streets again.

In Taipei, rescuers continued to pry carefully into the tottering Sungshan Hotel, hoping to find some of the estimated 30 people inside still alive. Concrete sections dropped off the partially toppled 12-story building, periodically driving searchers and rescue vehicles back.

In Tungshih, a city of 60,000 people in a mountainous area of Taichung county, virtually every house was damaged and one in three was ruined, with all power, water and links to the outside cut off. People slept along sides of roads or in their cars.

At a community center converted to a morgue, 105 bodies lay covered with saffron Buddhist robes. Offerings of canned drinks, biscuits, burning incense sticks and make-believe money were placed before the corpses. Many of the dead were children.

Dr. Lin Yung-lung said rescuers were running out of body bags and needed refrigeration for the corpses.

Most of the buildings that collapsed were new high-rises that have cropped up in the region during a building boom in recent years.

A man who identified himself only as Liu waited anxiously outside a 14-story apartment building tilting at a 45-degree angle. He had managed to escape from a seventh-floor apartment with one child when the earthquake struck, but his wife and a second child were still trapped inside.

''I didn't even realize that the building had fallen over until the quaking stopped,'' he said, unable to talk more about his traumatic experience.

Every bridge but one across the Tahchia River leading to Tungshih was knocked out by the earthquake, making movement of rescue equipment into the area difficult.

Most of the island's 22 million people were asleep when the quake struck in the wee hours, forcing people in their underwear and pajamas out of homes that were smashed or left tilting wildly.

The damage could come to $3.2 billion, according to a Taipei newspaper, the United Evening News, which cited information it got from government officials it did not identify.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange said it would not reopen until Monday, but commercial banks and the foreign exchange market in Taipei were in operation.

Taiwan's political nemesis, the communist regime in Beijing, offered to provide aid.

The government in Taipei expressed cautious thanks.

''This would be a good beginning to improving ties,'' said Su Chi, chairman of the government Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for Taiwan's mainland relations. ''I hope we can work on this basis and make efforts together to build up stable and peaceful relations.''

Ties between Taiwan and mainland China had recently sunk to a new low after Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said Beijing must deal with the island on a ''state-to-state'' basis.

The quake was Taiwan's deadliest since a 7.4 magnitude tremor hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and cause no damage.

AP-NY-09-22-99 1454EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Strong Aftershocks Hit Taiwan

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) (Sept. 22, 1999)- Teams from around the world streamed into Taiwan today to help rescue victims of the devastating earthquake as three strong aftershocks hit the island.

Rescue efforts were complicated by today's aftershocks, which triggered mudslides, forced terror-stricken residents to scurry into the streets and cracked one of Taiwan's largest reservoirs.

The aftershocks, with magnitudes of 6.8, 6.1 and 6.0, were the strongest of more than 2,000 that have rocked the island.

The death toll from Tuesday's quake climbed to 2,003 people, with 4,400 injured, officials said. Some 2,600 people were believed to be trapped in rubble, but rescuers were finding more bodies than survivors as they bored into collapsed houses and high-rise apartment complexes across central Taiwan.

Rescuers from Fairfax Co., Va., and Miami-Dade, Fla., arrived in Taiwan today and quickly found a conscious man trapped inside a caved-in apartment building in the town of Touliu.

``He was pretty glad to see us,'' said Capt. Michael Reilly, one of the U.S. emergency workers who brought four sniffing dogs to Taiwan in hopes of saving as many lives as possible.

Among the 14 countries that dispatched earthquake specialists were the United States, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Israel and the Philippines.

The Central News Agency placed the number of foreign specialists in the country at about 500, with more scheduled to arrive.

U.S. Geological Survey officials said Tuesday's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 - about the same strength as the devastating tremor that killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey last month - although Taiwanese seismologists initially put the magnitude at 7.3.

Many of the foreign experts had assisted in rescue operations in Turkey.

After today's aftershocks, state radio said cracks had been discovered in one of Taiwan's largest reservoirs, the Sun Moon Lake Reservoir, and warned downstream residents to evacuate their homes. It said water would be released from the reservoir as a precautionary measure.

The radio report also said officials were evacuating two towns in west-central Taiwan where streams of mud slid into a river. Officials feared the blocked water flow would cause flooding.

The aftershocks also were felt in Taipei, shaking buildings and sending many frightened citizens out of their homes and into the streets again.

In Taipei, rescuers continued to pry carefully into the tottering Sungshan Hotel, hoping to find some of the estimated 30 people inside still alive. Concrete sections dropped off the partially toppled 12-story building, periodically driving searchers and rescue vehicles back.

In Tungshih, a city of 60,000 people in a mountainous area of Taichung county, virtually every house was damaged and one in three was ruined, with all power, water and links to the outside cut off. People slept along sides of roads or in their cars.

At a community center converted to a morgue, 105 bodies lay covered with saffron Buddhist robes. Offerings of canned drinks, biscuits, burning incense sticks and make-believe money were placed before the corpses. Many of the dead were children.

Dr. Lin Yung-lung said rescuers were running out of body bags and needed refrigeration for the corpses.

Most of the buildings that collapsed were new high-rises that have cropped up in the region during a building boom in recent years.

A man who identified himself only as Liu waited anxiously outside a 14-story apartment building tilting at a 45-degree angle. He had managed to escape from a seventh-floor apartment with one child when the earthquake struck, but his wife and a second child were still trapped inside.

``I didn't even realize that the building had fallen over until the quaking stopped,'' he said, unable to talk more about his traumatic experience.

Every bridge but one across the Tahchia River leading to Tungshih was knocked out by the earthquake, making movement of rescue equipment into the area difficult.

Most of the island's 22 million people were asleep when the quake struck in the wee hours, forcing people in their underwear and pajamas out of homes that were smashed or left tilting wildly.

The damage could come to $3.2 billion, according to a Taipei newspaper, the United Evening News, which cited information it got from government officials it did not identify.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange said it would not reopen until Monday, but commercial banks and the foreign exchange market in Taipei were in operation.

Taiwan's political nemesis, the communist regime in Beijing, offered to provide aid.

The government in Taipei expressed cautious thanks.

``This would be a good beginning to improving ties,'' said Su Chi, chairman of the government Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for Taiwan's mainland relations. ``I hope we can work on this basis and make efforts together to build up stable and peaceful relations.''

Ties between Taiwan and mainland China had recently sunk to a new low after Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said Beijing must deal with the island on a ``state-to-state'' basis.

The quake was Taiwan's deadliest since a 7.4 magnitude tremor hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and cause no damage.

AP-NY-09-22-99 1032EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taiwan Earthquake Toll Tops 1,800

Rescuers Continue Search for Victims

By DENIS D. GRAY

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 22, 99) - Teams from around the world streamed into Taiwan today to help rescue victims of the devastating earthquake as three strong aftershocks hit the island.

Rescue efforts were complicated by today's aftershocks, which triggered mudslides, forced terror-stricken residents to scurry into the streets and cracked one of Taiwan's largest reservoirs.

The aftershocks, with magnitudes of 6.8, 6.1 and 6.0, were the strongest of more than 2,000 that have rocked the island.

Tuesday's quake killed 1,869 people and injured 4,400, officials said. Some 2,600 people were believed to be trapped in rubble, but rescuers were finding more bodies than survivors as they bored into collapsed houses and high-rise apartment complexes across central Taiwan.

Rescuers from Fairfax Co., Va., and Miami-Dade, Fla., arrived in Taiwan today and quickly found a conscious man trapped inside a caved-in apartment building in the town of Touliu.

''He was pretty glad to see us,'' said Capt. Michael Reilly, one of the U.S. emergency workers who brought four sniffing dogs to Taiwan in hopes of saving as many lives as possible.

Among the 14 countries that dispatched earthquake specialists were the United States, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Israel and the Philippines.

The Central News Agency placed the number of foreign specialists in the country at about 500, with more scheduled to arrive.

U.S. Geological Survey officials said Tuesday's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 - about the same strength as the devastating tremor that killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey last month - although Taiwanese seismologists initially put the magnitude at 7.3.

Many of the foreign experts had assisted in rescue operations in Turkey.

After today's aftershocks, state radio said cracks had been discovered in one of Taiwan's largest reservoirs, the Sun Moon Lake Reservoir, and warned downstream residents to evacuate their homes. It said water would be released from the reservoir as a precautionary measure.

The radio report also said officials were evacuating two towns in west-central Taiwan where streams of mud slid into a river. Officials feared the blocked water flow would cause flooding.

The aftershocks also were felt in Taipei, shaking buildings and sending many frightened citizens out of their homes and into the streets again.

In Taipei, rescuers continued to pry carefully into the tottering Sungshan Hotel, hoping to find some of the estimated 30 people inside still alive. Concrete sections dropped off the partially toppled 12-story building, periodically driving searchers and rescue vehicles back.

In Tungshih, a city of 60,000 people in a mountainous area of Taichung county, virtually every house was damaged and one in three was ruined, with all power, water and links to the outside cut off. People slept along sides of roads or in their cars.

At a community center converted to a morgue, 105 bodies lay covered with saffron Buddhist robes. Offerings of canned drinks, biscuits, burning incense sticks and make-believe money were placed before the corpses. Many of the dead were children.

Dr. Lin Yung-lung said rescuers were running out of body bags and needed refrigeration for the corpses.

Most of the buildings that collapsed were new high-rises that have cropped up in the region during a building boom in recent years.

A man who identified himself only as Liu waited anxiously outside a 14-story apartment building tilting at a 45-degree angle. He had managed to escape from a seventh-floor apartment with one child when the earthquake struck, but his wife and a second child were still trapped inside.

''I didn't even realize that the building had fallen over until the quaking stopped,'' he said, unable to talk more about his traumatic experience.

Every bridge but one across the Tahchia River leading to Tungshih was knocked out by the earthquake, making movement of rescue equipment into the area difficult.

Most of the island's 22 million people were asleep when the quake struck in the wee hours, forcing people in their underwear and pajamas out of homes that were smashed or left tilting wildly.

The damage could come to $3.2 billion, according to a Taipei newspaper, the United Evening News, which cited information it got from government officials it did not identify.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange said it would not reopen until Monday, but commercial banks and the foreign exchange market in Taipei were in operation.

Taiwan's political nemesis, the communist regime in Beijing, offered to provide aid.

The government in Taipei expressed cautious thanks.

''This would be a good beginning to improving ties,'' said Su Chi, chairman of the government Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for Taiwan's mainland relations. ''I hope we can work on this basis and make efforts together to build up stable and peaceful relations.''

Ties between Taiwan and mainland China had recently sunk to a new low after Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said Beijing must deal with the island on a ''state-to-state'' basis.

The quake was Taiwan's deadliest since a 7.4 magnitude tremor hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and cause no damage.

AP-NY-09-22-99 1017EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taiwan Earthquake Toll at 1,700

By DIRK BEVERIDGE

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -(Sept. 21, 1999) A strong aftershock rocked Taiwan early Wednesday even as rescuers struggled to reach victims of a more powerful quake a day earlier that killed more than 1,700 people.

Rescuers scrambled all night and into the daylight Wednesday, pressing to unearth thousands of people trapped under the debris of Tuesday quake.

More than 100,000 Taiwanese were homeless after the 7.6-magnitude quake toppled houses and high-rise apartment complexes across central Taiwan early Tuesday. Roads buckled in waves, chunks of land rose up to create new hills, cracked buildings tilted at crazy angles and a bridge was left dangling in the air.

By Wednesday, 1,712 people were dead, more than 4,000 were injured and almost 3,000 were believed trapped in the rubble, according to the Interior Ministry's disaster management center. About 4 million households were still without power.

The aftershock that rocked the island Wednesday had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 and was one of more than 2,000 aftershocks since Tuesday's temblor.

Wednesday's aftershock was felt in Taipei, shaking buildings and sending many frightened citizens out of their homes and into the streets again. There were no immediate reports of injury or serious damage.

Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and cause no damage. The earthquake Tuesday was the island's second deadliest quake - after a 7.4 magnitude one killed 3,276 people in 1935.

``We're pulling the dead out one by one, but it's hard to get an overall picture of the number of fatalities,'' said Chen Wen-hsien, a rescue official in the central city of Fengyuan, 30 miles from the epicenter. He had to plug his nose with tissue after part of a building began shifting from an aftershock, releasing the stench of a corpse still inside.

A sniffer dog's whimper was seen as a hopeful sign that someone was still alive under the rubble of a toppled 12-story building in Fengyuan. But hope was fading fast as the number of bodies being found surpassed the number of survivors.

``I don't think there will be any more survivors,'' said one neighbor who only gave her name as Liu. ``This morning they already found three people. All were dead,'' she said, watching a chain of soldiers wearing surgical masks clear debris from the pile of concrete, tile and splintered wood.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau listed the quake at 7.3 magnitude, a little less than the U.S. Geological Survey's estimate. The bureau said the quake's epicenter was in Nantou County, 120 miles south of the capital of Taipei, where most of the deaths occurred.

Morgues filled up with bodies and officials appealed for donations of bulldozers, cars, quilts and food. Rescue crews from the United States, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland and Russia were on their way to provide assistance, as was a U.N. disaster assessment team.

Taiwan's political nemesis, the communist regime in Beijing, offered aid, but with a subtle dig at the island it considers a renegade province.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin said the disaster ``hurt the hearts of people on the mainland as the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as flesh and blood.''

China's Red Cross said it would provide $100,000 in disaster aid and $60,000 worth of relief supplies.

The Taipei government expressed cautious thanks.

``This would be a good beginning to improving ties,'' said Su Chi, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for Taiwan's relations with China. ``I hope we can work on this basis and make efforts together to build up stable and peaceful relations.''

Ties between Taiwan and mainland China had recently sunk to a new low after Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui said Beijing must deal with the island on a ``state-to-state'' basis.

Lee surveyed the damage by helicopter and urged officials and citizens to concentrate on saving lives.

In Tungshih, a city of 60,000 in a nearby mountainous area, virtually every house was damaged and one in three was ruined, with all power, water and communications links cut off.

Several hundred bodies were piled up in an open-air morgue, Lee Wen-wei, an administrator at the Farmers Association Hospital in Tungshih, told The Associated Press. The hospital lost power and was evacuating patients.

Exhausted rescue workers in Tungshih said they did not have enough heavy machinery to dig through all the rubble.

Every bridge but one across the Tahchia River leading to Tungshih was knocked out by the earthquake, making movement of rescue equipment into the area difficult.

In the small city of Puli, in Nantou county, roads buckled under the stress of the quake, forming large asphalt waves. An apartment building that lost its foundation was left tilting at 45 degrees.

Most of the island's 22 million people were asleep when the quake struck at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, forcing people in their nightclothes to flee their homes.

``It's too big a disaster. It came on so fast. There's so much death,'' said Lin Mei-lan, a coordinator at a Buddhist charity that was bringing in blankets, food and medical help.

Most buildings in Nantou and Tungshih counties were left standing, and the ones that collapsed were mainly new high-rises. The region has experienced a boom in development in recent years, and shoddy construction has been a problem.

Taipei, population 2.7 million, was spared much of the damage, although the quake destroyed a 12-story hotel in the eastern part of the capital.

Chen Chih-yun, 81, was one of the first to escape. He described how he ``crawled like a mouse'' to safety, climbing over a fallen wall in his apartment in the dark and following a neighbor's lead before finally reaching a balcony outside his ninth-floor apartment.

``You could never imagine how terrible it was,'' Chen said. ``I heard my wife screaming in the next room that she could not move, but I shouted back that I could not help her.''

Chen's son eventually rescued Chen's 71-year-old wife.

AP-NY-09-21-99 2215EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taiwan Quake Kills More Than 1,600

Rescue Workers Continue Search for Survivors

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 21, 99) - High-rise apartment buildings were knocked off foundations and roads buckled into waves of asphalt when a powerful earthquake struck Taiwan, killing more than 1,600 people and destroying hundreds of homes.

With a preliminary magnitude of 7.6, the quake was the strongest to hit Taiwan in a decade and was about the same strength as the devastating tremor that killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey last month.

The quake's epicenter was centered 90 miles south of Taipei, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said. It struck about 1:45 a.m. today (1:45 p.m. EDT Monday), while most of Taiwan's 22 million people were sleeping.

Dazed Taiwanese - many wearing only underwear or pajamas - stumbled into dark, chaotic streets, shaken awake by the quake.

By late evening, the Interior Ministry's disaster management center reported 1,674 people had been killed and more than 3,900 were injured. Some 2,600 people were believed trapped, while 219 were reported missing, the center said.

Most of the deaths occurred near the epicenter outside the central city of Taichung, where more than 700 people died in Taichung County, and nearby Nantou county, where some 500 died. The area has seen a burst of development in recent years, often with shoddy construction.

Also today, Chinese President Jiang Zemin extended condolences and offered aid to the quake victims, even though the disaster occurred at a time of tense relations between China and Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province.

The quake ''hurt the hearts of people on the mainland as the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as flesh and blood,'' China's state-run Xinhua News agency said in a paraphrase of Jiang's remarks. China's Red Cross said it would provide $100,000 in disaster aid and $60,000 in relief supplies.

Most of the structures that collapsed in Taiwan were new high-rises.

The foundations of some of the apartment blocks in the cities crumpled into piles of concrete boulders, sending the structures crashing into neighboring buildings. Soldiers raced out of buildings with bloodied victims moaning in pain on stretchers.

Nantou County Executive Peng Pai-hsien appealed for donations of bulldozers, cars, quilts and food, saying 100,000 people were left homeless in the county. He said morgues were full of bodies, and the county needed body bags and freezers in the summer heat.

One distraught woman told local television her parents were trapped in a Taichung apartment building. ''I don't know what happened to my dad and mom,'' the sobbing survivor said. ''We live in different rooms. I haven't seen them.''

In the small city of Puli in Nantou, roads buckled under the stress of the quake, forming large asphalt waves. An apartment building that lost its foundation was left leaning 45 degrees.

In Taipei, the quake wrecked the 78-room Sungshan Hotel, collapsing the bottom stories and setting the badly damaged structure leaning on a neighboring commercial building. About 100 people were rescued and 80 were trapped inside the concrete structure, which also housed a bank and several apartments, officials said.

One 81-year-old survivor said he ''crawled like a mouse'' through the rubble of his ninth-floor apartment to his balcony, where rescuers pulled him to safety.

''You can't imagine how terrible it was,'' said survivor Chen Chih-yun, who only suffered bruises.

Fire crews turned hoses on the wreckage as smoke poured from fires raging in several destroyed rooms. A woman pulled from the building urged rescuers to keep looking for survivors.

''Hurry, go rescue people. They're in there. They're inside,'' said the unidentified woman, who was dressed in street clothes and did not appear to be seriously injured. ''I lived on the ninth floor, but now it's the fourth floor.''

Meanwhile, 50 people were injured when a 12-story apartment building collapsed in the Taipei suburb of Hsinchuang. An estimated 100 others were still trapped in the building, which collapsed onto a neighboring five-story structure.

But Taipei, with a 2.7 million population, was spared much of the damage. The government called off work and school across the island, leaving the capital's normally congested streets relatively empty.

President Lee Teng-hui flew by helicopter to Taichung to direct rescue work, while Vice President Lien Chan went to Nantou.

Today's quake was Taiwan's worst since a 7.4 magnitude temblor hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and rarely cause damage.

The governor of Idaho, Dirk Kempthorne, who is visiting Taipei on an Asian trade mission, said he was sleeping in a top-floor room in the 25-story Grand Hyatt Regency when the earthquake hit. ''We've been through quite an experience,'' Kempthorne said by telephone from the street outside the hotel. ''I think many of us thought we might be done for.''

Kempthorne said the quake began as a gentle swaying, ''and then it increased in intensity until you were virtually thrown from the bed.''

AP-NY-09-21-99 1050EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

China Promises To Help Taiwan

.c The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) -(Sept. 21, 99)  After trying for weeks to intimidate Taiwan with threatening words and military maneuvers, China extended condolences and offered aid to victims of the powerful earthquake that struck the Chinese-claimed island today.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin, in remarks carried by the official Xinhua News Agency, said the quake ``hurt the hearts of people on the mainland as the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as flesh and blood.''

China's Red Cross announced it would provide the equivalent of $100,000 in disaster aid and more than $60,000 worth of relief supplies.

Beijing will provide ``all assistance within our capability'' and was contacting Taiwan officials to arrange it, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a briefing.

China's senior envoy to Taiwan, Wang Daohan, said he was ``shocked and grieved.'' The organization he heads, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, sent a message of sympathy to its counterpart in Taipei, the Straits Exchange Foundation.

Wang was supposed to visit Taiwan later this year, but Beijing postponed the visit in anger over Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's assertion in July that Taiwan is a separate state.

Beijing views Taiwan as a rebel province and regarded Lee's remarks as another step toward formal independence. Over the past two months, China has reiterated that it will use force if necessary to retake the island. The sides separated amid civil war in 1949.

The deadly 7.6 magnitude quake also was felt in southeastern China, 120 miles from Taiwan, but there were no reports of damage or injuries on the mainland, Xinhua reported.

Chinese earthquake experts offered to go to Taiwan to provide technical support and help monitor aftershocks, Xinhua said.

AP-NY-09-21-99 0756EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Virginia Rescuers Head to Taiwan

Search and Rescue Teams Recently Returned From Turkey

.c The Associated Press

FAIRFAX, Va. (Sept. 20, 99) - An advance team of rescue specialists from Virginia and Florida, was leaving for earthquake-stricken Taiwan, a spokesman for the Fairfax County, Va., fire and rescue department said late Monday.

Dan Schmidt, the spokesman, said the advanced assessment team of 14 includes eight people from Fairfax County, three from Miami-Dade County, Fla., and two from the federal Agency for International Development.

Many of the Fairfax personnel just recently returned from Turkey, where they helped recovery efforts in the aftermath of that country's devastating earthquake. The advance team includes cave-in, safety and logistics specialists.

Schmidt said no decision has yet been made on whether to deploy the full 70-member rescue team.

AP-NY-09-20-99 2212EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taiwan Earthquake Kills 400

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -(Sept. 20, 1999) The strongest quake in Taiwan in decades jolted the island early Tuesday, killing at least 400 people, wrecking a 12-story hotel in Taipei and destroying more than 100 homes nationwide, the government said.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 and was centered 90 miles south-southwest of Taipei, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said. It also issued warnings of possible tsunamis, or huge waves that sometimes follow earthquakes.

The temblor was about the same strength as the devastating one that struck Turkey on Aug. 17, killing more than 15,000 people.

Most of the victims were found in Taichung and nearby Nantou, the epicenter 130 miles south of Taipei. Several roads were buckled and traffic was disrupted, isolating many remote towns.

Hospitals in towns and cities in central Taiwan were packed with injured people, and television stations urged doctors, nurses and others with medical training to join in the rescue work.

Television showed doctors treating victims wrapped in bandages or quilts as they were rushed to hospitals.

Four-story residential buildings in Taichung had collapsed. Water poured from ruptured mains and distraught residents squatted with their heads in their hands as rescuers helped apparently unhurt survivors from the buildings.

President Lee Teng-hui flew by helicopter to Taichung to direct rescue work while Vice President Lien Chan went to Nantou.

In Taipei, the island nation's capital, the quake wrecked the 78-room Sungshan Hotel, collapsing the bottom stories and setting the badly damaged top listing to one side.

Fire crews turned hoses on the wreckage as smoke poured from fires raging in several destroyed rooms. Sixty people were still feared trapped in the building, with 49 people already evacuated and sent to the hospital and another 11 people evacuated uninjured.

A woman pulled from the wreckage urged rescuers to look for more injured.

``Hurry, go rescue people. They're in there. They're inside,'' said the unidentified woman, who was dressed in street clothes and did not appear to be injured. ``I lived on the ninth floor, but now it's the fourth floor.''

Dirk Kempthorne, the governor of Idaho who is visiting Taipei on an Asian trade mission, said he was sleeping in a top-floor room in the 25-story Grant Hyatt Regency in Taipei when the earthquake hit.

``We've been through quite an experience,'' Kempthorne said by telephone from the street outside the hotel. ``I think many of us thought we might be done for.''

Kempthorne said the quake began as a gentle swaying, ``and then it increased in intensity until you were virtually thrown from the bed.''

Meanwhile, 50 people were reported injured when a 12-story apartment building collapsed in the Taipei suburb of Hsinchuang. An estimated 100 others were still trapped within the building, which collapsed onto a neighboring five-story structure.

In Washington, President Clinton said he and Mrs. Clinton were ``saddened'' by news of the quake.

``We are in touch directly with the Taiwan authorities to determine what assistance from the United States may be needed,'' he said.

Tuesday's quake was Taiwan's worst since a 7.4-magnitude one hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is jolted by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and rarely cause damage.

The latest quake struck at about 1:45 a.m., while most of Taiwan's 22 million people were sleeping. It knocked out electric service throughout the northern part of the island. State radio said the initial quake was followed by six aftershocks.

After the temblor, people made their way into the streets from damaged buildings, some wearing only underwear, some in nightclothes. Some appeared dazed, but others quickly recovered from the sudden awakening. A few waved from damaged buildings.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou announced schools and offices would be closed Tuesday. The government said financial markets would also stay shut.

In southwestern Taipei, some people brought candles into the street. Many carried umbrellas to stay out of the rain, huddling around battery-operated radios.

Rern-Wei Cheng, a visitor to Taipei from California, said he was watching television with his family when the earthquake struck. ``When I first felt the quake, I thought of a Turkish friend who went back to Turkey to visit his family when the earthquake hit there. ... We were all frightened and we hid under the kitchen table.'' No one in the family was hurt.

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said the quake prompted tsunami warnings for Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Yap, Guam, and Palau.

AP-NY-09-20-99 2209EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quake Shakes Taiwan

At Least 269 Killed, Hundreds More Injured

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 20, 99) - The strongest quake in Taiwan in decades jolted the island early Tuesday, wrecking a 12-story hotel in Taipei, destroying more than 100 homes islandwide and killing at least 269 people, the government said. About 1,000 people were injured.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 and was centered 90 miles south-southwest of Taipei, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said. It also issued warnings of possible tsunamis, or huge waves that sometimes follow earthquakes.

The temblor was about the same strength as the devastating one that struck Turkey on Aug. 17, killing more than 15,000 people.

In Taipei, the island nation's capital, the quake wrecked the 78-room Sungshan Hotel, collapsing the bottom stories and setting the badly damaged top listing to one side.

Fire crews turned hoses on the wreckage as smoke poured from fires raging in several destroyed rooms. Sixty people were still feared trapped in the building, with 49 people already evacuated and sent to the hospital and another 11 people evacuated uninjured.

A woman pulled from the wreckage urged rescuers to look for more injured.

''Hurry, go rescue people. They're in there. They're inside,'' said the unidentified woman, who was dressed in street clothes and did not appear to be injured. ''I lived on the ninth floor, but now it's the fourth floor.''

Meanwhile, 50 people were reported injured when a 12-story apartment building collapsed in the Taipei suburb of Hsinchuang. An estimated 100 others were still trapped within the building, which collapsed onto a neighboring five-story structure.

Taiwan Television showed collapsed four-story residential buildings in the central city of Taichung, but gave no figures for dead or injured there. Water poured from ruptured mains and distraught residents squatted with their heads in their hands as rescuers helped apparently unhurt survivors from the building.

Severe damage was reported in the town of Puli near the quake epicenter, but details were sketchy. An explosion was reported at the town's major business, a rice wine distillery, and scores of buildings suffered damage, the Broadcasting Corporation of China said. No casualty figures were immediately available there.

The Interior Ministry's disaster management center reported 269 dead and about 1,000 injured islandwide. Hundreds more people were reported trapped under the rubble.

In Washington, President Clinton said he and Mrs. Clinton were ''saddened'' by news of the quake.

''We are in touch directly with the Taiwan authorities to determine what assistance from the United States may be needed,'' he said.

Tuesday's quake was Taiwan's worst since a 7.4-magnitude one hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is jolted by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and rarely cause damage.

The latest quake struck at about 1:45 a.m., while most of Taiwan's 22 million people were sleeping. It knocked out electric service throughout the northern part of the island. State radio said the initial quake was followed by six aftershocks.

After the temblor, people made their way into the streets from damaged buildings, some wearing only underwear, some in nightclothes. Some appeared dazed, but others quickly recovered from the sudden awakening. A few waved from damaged buildings.

Dirk Kempthorne, the governor of Idaho who is visiting Taipei on an Asian trade mission, said he was sleeping in a top-floor room in the 25-story Grant Hyatt Regency in Taipei when the earthquake hit.

''We've been through quite an experience,'' Kempthorne said by telephone from the street outside the hotel. ''I think many of us thought we might be done for.''

Kempthorne said the quake began as a gentle swaying, ''and then it increased in intensity until you were virtually thrown from the bed.''

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou announced schools and offices would be closed Tuesday.

In southwestern Taipei, some people brought candles into the street. Many carried umbrellas to stay out of the rain, huddling around battery-operated radios.

Rern-Wei Cheng, a visitor to Taipei from California, said he was watching television with his family when the earthquake struck. ''When I first felt the quake, I thought of a Turkish friend who went back to Turkey to visit his family when the earthquake hit there. ... We were all frightened and we hid under the kitchen table.'' No one in the family was hurt.

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said the quake prompted tsunami warnings for Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Yap, Guam, and Palau.

AP-NY-09-20-99 2105EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quake rocks Taiwan - Sept. 20, 1999

A powerful earthquake has hit Taiwan, killing at least 20 people and causing the partial collapse of a 12-storey hotel in the capital, Taipei.

Most northern parts of the island felt the effects of the quake, which has been estimated at 7.6 on the Richter Scale.

But it struck in the early hours of the morning, so the full extent of the damage and casualties is still unknown.

An official from the Ministry of the Interior told the AFP news agency: "I'm afraid [there will be] more casualties as many people are trapped in collapsed buildings."

Taiwan's weather centre says it is the strongest earthquake ever to have hit the island.

In Taipei, rescuers are working at the 78-room Sungshan Hotel, trying to pull survivors from the rubble.

At least two other buildings in the capital are reported to have collapsed.

The US Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude of the quake as 7.6 on the Richter scale.

Its epicentre is believed to be Nantou, an active earthquake zone in central Taiwan.

The earthquake which devastated Turkey last month, killing more than 15,000 people, was measured at 7.4.

Warnings of tsunamis - tidal waves which often follow earthquakes - have gone out for Taiwan, Japan and other islands in the region, the Geological Survey said.

The quake, which struck at 1.47am on Tuesday (1747 GMT on Monday) caused severe damage to infrastructure and buildings in several cities.

Power has been lost in large parts of northern and central Taiwan.

But the extent of the damage, especially in remote and mountainous areas, is not yet known.

Witnesses in Taipei spoke of continuing aftershocks, buildings collapsing, objects falling off apartment blocks and people fleeing their homes.

Radio reports said the central city of Taichung might be the worst hit.

The city's mayor said: "This is one of the strongest earthquakes I have felt in my life. Many buildings collapsed and there is damage to roads and other infrastructure".

The authorities have warned that, because of the magnitude of the earthquake, aftershocks and tremors may be felt for the next two weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Alice Hung

Reuters

TAIPEI (Sept. 20, 1999) - A powerful earthquake shook Taiwan early on Tuesday, toppling buildings as people slept inside, and first reports said several had been killed.

''We have at least five people dead, a couple of people missing, 22 to 24 trapped. These are preliminary reports,'' a Taiwan government spokesman said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it was a ''large and potentially damaging'' quake. It struck at 1.47 a.m. and measured 7.6 on the open-ended Richter scale. The earthquake in Turkey last month which killed more than 15,000 people measured 7.4 on the scale.

A Reuters reporter saw injured people dragged from the wreckage of fallen buildings. One large building had collapsed in concertina fashion. Rescuers guided victims, semi-naked or wearing pyjamas, down ladders to safety.

A Taiwan journalist told CNN that three buildings had collapsed in Taipei, one of them 12 storeys high, and several people had been reported buried under debris.

A Taipei resident said two schools had collapsed and that students were trapped in one of them.

Rescuers carried an injured child and old women to safety through mangled wreckage of concrete and metal, with water streaming from pipes.

Shocked victims were shown clinging to the balconies of what had been their homes.

Taiwan state radio said the quake appeared to be centred in Nantou, a seismically active area in the centre of the island.

It was believed to be the strongest earthquake ever to hit Taiwan, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.

Stuart Koyanagi of the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, told CNN that a tsunami or tidal wave warning had been issued by Taiwan authorities.

''This is similar to the quake in Turkey. But we still don't know how deep below the surface the earthquake was,'' he said.

''We estimate this is a major earthquake. We only record five to ten such quakes a year. Quakes like this can kill dozens of people and collapse a lot of buildings.''

Residents of Taipei said the city had been plunged into darkness by a power cut and nervous citizens had poured into the streets, which were being patrolled by police cars.

State radio said damage to buildings was greater in rural areas and electricity had been cut to most parts of the island.

Premier Vincent Siew broadcast a message on state radio, appealing to Taiwan people to stay calm and telling them that everything was being done to rescue people, CNN said.

Michael Armstrong, a guest in the Taipei Hyatt Hotel, said he had been awoken by the quake.

''I was fast asleep and the violent shaking woke me up. the shaking seemed to go on for about 30 seconds. After the main quake the hotel seemed to keep shaking,'' he told CNN.

Reut 16:54 09-20-99

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quake measuring 7.6 hits Taiwan

Monday, 20 September 1999 19:01 (GMT)

(urgent) (UPI Spotlight)

Quake measuring 7.6 hits Taiwan

Sept. 20,1999 (UPI) - A strong earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck Taiwan on Monday at 1:47 p.m. EDT. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 35 miles (56 km) west-southwest of Hua-Lien and produced at least two aftershocks measuring close to 6.0.

Three downtown hotels damaged. 12 story hotel devastated.

~~~~~~~~~~

Earthquake Kills Power in Taiwan

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

.c The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 20, 1999) - An earthquake struck Taipei before dawn Tuesday, knocking out power and shaking buildings. State radio said it was the strongest in Taiwan in 10 years.

Telephone service was interrupted for a time by the quake, which occurred at about 1:45 a.m. The Broadcasting Corp. of China said it was followed by six aftershocks and cut electric service in parts of the city.

Sirens - from fire trucks and police cars - resounded through Taipei, which is home to about 2.6 million people and is the largest city in Taiwan. But there was no sign of panic.

In the southwestern Chiang Kai-shek district, some people brought candles into the street. Many carried umbrellas to stay out of the rain, huddling around battery-operated radios.

There was no immediate word on injuries or damage.

Rern-Wei Cheng, a visitor to Taipei from California, said he was watching television with his family when the earthquake struck.

''When I first felt the quake, I thought of a Turkish friend who went back to Turkey to visit his family when the earthquake hit there....We were all frightened and we hid under the kitchen table.'' No one in the family was hurt.

In one Taipei suburb, electricity was out in houses, but street lights were on.

The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., said it had a report of the quake. Pam Benfield, a USGS official, said the quake's magnitude was not immediately available.

AP-NY-09-20-99 1441EDT

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