Tuesday night’s earthquake has damaged 53 schools at an estimated cost of more than NT$15 million (US$512,470), the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
Of the 53 schools, 23 are in Hualien County and seven are in Kaohsiung, while four each were damaged in Miaoli County, Taipei and Tainan, Department of Student Affairs and Special Education official Chen Tsung-chih (陳宗志) said.
Hualien County’s Mingyi Elementary School suffered the most severe damage, estimated at NT$7 million, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
The earthquake has left the school with torn water pipes, cracked ditches, broken tiles and a malfunctioning overhead door, the Hualien County Department of Education said.
Hualien County’s Beichang Elementary School, where the ministry estimates losses to total NT$3 million, has fissured pillars and deep cracks in the building’s expansion joints, the department said.
The loss for schools in Hualien County — estimated at NT$13 million — is the highest, followed by Kaohsiung at NT$1.4 million and Hsinchu at NT$180,000, Chen said.
So far, only one student has been confirmed injured, the ministry said, adding that the Huagang Junior High School student in Hualien County scraped their left leg, but has received medical treatment and returned home at 2am yesterday.
Students at elementary, junior and senior-high schools across Taiwan are on winter break. The new semester is scheduled to begin on Feb. 21.
Meanwhile, 70 cellphone base stations were damaged, of which 24 had been repaired as of press time last night, the National Communications Commission said.
The damaged base stations belong to five major telecom carriers, with a majority owned by Taiwan Mobile, Far EasTone Telecommunications and Chunghwa Telecom, commission spokesperson Weng Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
Most of the base stations went offline because of power outages, Weng said, adding that they can be repaired after the power supply is restored.
In addition to telecom signals, 732 households in Hualien reported cable TV disruptions, Weng said, adding that the cable system operator was told to repair it as soon as possible.
The nation’s emergency alert system functioned well on Tuesday night, as many people reported that their cellphones sounded an alarm as the earthquake hit, the commission said.
According to the commission, the earthquake happened at 11:50pm on Tuesday. The Central Weather Bureau sent a presidential alert to the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction’s warning system at 11:51:02.505pm, which was disseminated by telecom carriers at 11:51:03.041pm.
On average, it took 4G telecom service users about five seconds to receive the alert, whereas 3G users received the message after about 10 seconds, the commission said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS