The Cabinet has sent more than NT$929 million (US$31.74 million) to the Hualien County Government to be used in disaster relief and restoration work in the wake of a deadly earthquake that struck the county on Feb. 6, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during a visit to Hualien.
The Cabinet said that NT$300 million came from central tax revenue, NT$500 million from a special fund for the county government and NT$129 million from a fund for local administrative units of the county government.
Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) said that former premier Simon Chang’s (張善政) government sent NT$20 billion to the Tainan City Government following a major earthquake in 2016 that killed 116 people, while the city government also received NT$4.3 billion in donations.
Photo: CNA
After last week’s earthquake that killed 17 people, the Hualien County Government only received NT$300 million from the Cabinet and NT$595 million in public donations, Fu said, urging the central government to direct more resources to the county.
Lai, who was in Hualien to pay his respects to quake victims and their families, and thank search-and-rescue personnel, said that the central government would give as much support to the county as it did to Tainan.
However, Tainan did not receive any more than NT$90 million from the central government, Lai added.
Lai, a former Tainan mayor, said that the city government did not receive NT$20 billion from the Cabinet, and instead used its own funds and donations to carry out reconstruction efforts.
While the Cabinet gave the city NT$90 million, it was used to conduct strength assessment tests on about 1,000 buildings in the city that might be affected by soil liquefaction, Lai said.
“Any mayor or county commissioner would be reasonably anxious when faced with an earthquake of this magnitude. I want the public to give more support to Commissioner Fu and the county government,” Lai said.
The Hualien earthquake was not the first major earthquake to hit Taiwan, Lai said, adding that the nation experienced the Tainan earthquake in 2016 and the 921 Earthquake in 1999, and that the government has developed a response system to quickly and consistently send support to disaster areas.
“The government did not give special favors to Tainan or ignore Hualien. It will not happen. With more experience and technological improvements [in disaster relief], Hualien would eventually receive more public and government support than Tainan,” Lai said.
Lai also ordered Taiwan Water Corp to repair damaged facilities and resume water supply to earthquake-hit areas within three days to allow Hualien residents to observe the Lunar New Year, adding that the Cabinet has formed a task force led by Minister Without Portfolio Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) to speed up reconstruction efforts.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS