The fifth and sixth floors of a six-story residential building on Jhongsing Street in Taichung’s Cingshuei District (清水) partially collapsed yesterday, with no injuries or deaths.
Taichung Police Department’s Cingshuei Precinct yesterday said that all 34 residents of 13 households were evacuated from the building and 26 of them were placed in hotels.
Cingshuei District’s Sining Borough (西寧) Warden Wang Ching-yuan (王慶源) said the 48-year-old building was co-constructed by the landowner and a construction company, but the construction was not completed due to the company’s financial troubles and eventual closure.
Photo: CNA
The fifth and sixth floors have been left bare since then, while the rest of the building was rented out at low cost, mostly to disadvantaged, low-income households, with most residents living on the second and third floors, he said.
A resident surnamed Shih (石) yesterday said most tenants have lived there for 30 to 40 years and her landlord charges as little as NT$4,000 in rent due to the building’s poor condition.
Taichung Urban Development Bureau Director Lee Cheng-wei (李正偉) said the building’s owner would face penalties under the Building Act (建築法) for failing to report the structure’s condition, neglecting to have it designated as a dangerous building and not taking necessary protective measures.
Taichung Architects Association chairman Yu Cheng-tsung (虞承宗) said initial evaluation showed that a lack of maintenance likely caused the concrete to carbonize and the steel rebar to rust, which led to the collapse.
Further assessments of structural safety are required and redevelopment is strongly recommended given the building’s age, he said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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