Fruit, flowers and incense paper were laid on a table yesterday, as authorities prepared a ceremony before demolishing a precariously tilting building that has become a symbol of Taiwan’s biggest quake in 25 years.
The glass-fronted Uranus building in Hualien is a 10-story mix of shops and apartments that has stood for about 40 years.
Wednesday’s earthquake, which Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring center measured at magnitude 7.2, while the US Geological Service put it at 7.4, caused it to tilt at a 45-degree angle, its twisted exterior becoming one of the most recognizable images to emerge from the disaster.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
By yesterday, authorities said they would start taking it apart, first preparing a table of offerings in front of the building to ensure a smooth demolition and to “soothe the lost souls” of those killed in the quake.
Chips, instant noodles, bottles of soda and folded piles of paper money for the dead were set alongside baskets of flowers and a container holding incense sticks.
“[We] offer sacrifices and pray for blessing for the demolition work of the Uranus building,” an announcer said over a loudspeaker.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Traditional cultural rites like blessing a new home or providing offerings to spirits after buying land are commonplace in Taiwan.
Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) and other officials wearing construction vests each lit a joss stick and bowed to the building.
“The Uranus was built in 1986. All structures age due to time, earthquakes and many other conditions,” she told reporters.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, REUTERS
“We hope to complete the demolition within two weeks so Hualien people can return to their regular lives,” Hsu said.
Workers then began using a pink crane to smash the glass windows covering the building’s exterior, revealing the inner brick facade as rain started to drizzle.
By about 1pm, a severe aftershock hit the city, alarming the construction team as the building appeared to lean more perilously forward.
Accelerating the process, workers began inserting giant metal bars to stabilize the structure.
Inside an exposed upper-story floor, a piano could be seen lying on its side, surrounded by debris from an apartment damaged by the massive tremor.
So far, at least 12 people are known to have died from the quake, with more than 1,100 injured, although authorities have not specified the severity of the injuries.
Hundreds remain stranded around Taroko National Park, some in a hostel, others in a luxury hotel, on local hiking trails and a school cut off by landslides.
A network of tunnels traverses the region, with key roads leading to the park now blocked by falling rocks. Rescue teams have been mobilized from all over Taiwan to look for those still missing.
“Rescuers are not giving up, as the search continues in the mountains for earthquake survivors,” vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said, calling them the “true heroes of a resilient Taiwan.”
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
RSS