Search-and-rescue teams yesterday finished clearing away most of the above-ground levels of the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan, as the number of bodies discovered amid the rubble rose rapidly.
At press time last night, 31 bodies were found overnight on Thurday and yesterday, bringing the total death toll from the quake in Tainan to 95.
Twenty-seven Weiguan Jinlong residents are still unaccounted for.
Photo: Johnson Lai, AP
Most of the bodies that were retrieved over the past 24 hours had been so badly crushed that they were not readily identifiable, even by gender, rescue personnel speaking on condition of anonymity said.
At press time last night, rubble from most of the complex’s nine residential sections had been cleared away using heavy equipment, leaving buildings A and G as the focus of search efforts.
Both had been pushed several meters into the ground after buildings H and I — which formed the ends of the U-shaped complex — collapsed on top of them.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
Tainan Civil Engineers’ Association president Cheng Ming-chang (鄭明昌) yesterday morning told a briefing to relatives of the missing that most of the people still unaccounted for were likely in those underground sections, which presented a particular challenge to the search teams.
Building A fell to the ground at an angle because of the soft soil and was severely damaged when Building H collapsed on top of it, he said.
Building G was similarly sandwiched under Building I, with the walls of its top story pushed down almost to street level.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
While there had been concern yesterday that rain might affect rescue efforts, there should not be significant problems except for the searchers’ ease of movement now that much of the accumulated dirt had been carted away, Cheng said.
There was no timetable for dismantling the underground sections, he said.
Bodies that were retrieved yesterday were taken by ambulance to the Tainan Funeral Parlor, where DNA tests would be conducted to help determine their identities.
Photo courtsey of Chi Mei Medical Center
A Buddhist “Puja” memorial service marking the end of the first week since the disaster was held yesterday at a special memorial hall at the parlor dedicated to earthquake victims.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Premier Simon Chang (張善政), Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and many other politicians attended the service.
Taiwan Rescue (中華民國搜救總隊) volunteers were pulled from the Weiguan Jinlong site in Yongkang District (永康) on Thursday night, and Tainan Deputy Mayor Tseng Hsu-cheng (曾旭正) yesterday said that there were enough personnel — a total of 919 — to handle the rest of the search, including crews from other cities and counties.
Photo: CNA
Search teams were being rotated in and out every two hours, Tseng said.
The non-governmental search-and-rescue organization withdrew after complaining that its access to the site had been restricted, preventing its members from fully participating in rescue efforts.
In other developments, the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said that water service in quake-devastated areas of Tainan was set to resume last night.
Pipelines carrying water to about 30,000 households had been damaged by the quake, the National Fire Agency said.
Water would be sent via a 1km temporary above-ground pipeline, which has been connected to intact underground pipelines, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Wang Chieh, Hsiao Ting-fang and Huang Wen-huang
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS