Why Taiwan was so prepared for a powerful earthquake

When the largest earthquake in Taiwan in half a century struck off its east coast, the buildings in the closest city, Hualien, swayed and rocked. As more than 300 aftershocks rocked the island over the next 24 hours to Thursday morning, the buildings shook again and again.

But for the most part, they stood.

Even the two buildings that suffered the most damage remained largely intact, allowing residents to climb to safety out the windows of upper stories. One of them, the rounded, red brick Uranus Building, which leaned precariously after its first floors collapsed, was mostly drawing curious onlookers.

The building is a reminder of how much Taiwan has prepared for disasters like the magnitude-7.4 earthquake that jolted the island on Wednesday. Perhaps because of improvements in building codes, greater public awareness and highly trained search-and-rescue operations — and, likely, a dose of good luck — the casualty figures were relatively low. By Thursday, 10 people had died and more than 1,000 others were injured. Several dozen were missing.

“Similar level earthquakes in other societies have killed far more people,” said Daniel Aldrich, a director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. Of Taiwan, he added: “And most of these deaths, it seems, have come from rock slides and boulders, rather than building collapses.”

Across the island, rail traffic had resumed by Thursday, including trains to Hualien. Workers who had been stuck in a rock quarry were lifted out by helicopter. Roads were slowly being repaired. Hundreds of people were stranded at a hotel near a national park because of a blocked road, but they were visited by rescuers and medics.

Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, local authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organisations for disaster response and relief.

Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes, being located near the junction of two tectonic plates, and many are concentrated along the picturesque, mainly rural and sparsely populated east coast. The region is also a major draw for tourists with its rugged mountains, hot spring resorts and tranquil farms.

That 1999 quake, commonly referred to as the “921 quake” as it hit on Sept. 21, was a spur for the government to revise building codes and strengthen disaster management laws.

Yet Tai Yun-fa, a structural engineer who runs Taiwan’s Alfa Safe that develops quake-resistant building materials, said that while a tightening of building codes had helped better prepare the island for disaster, some developers were still cutting corners.

Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, Chang said local authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organisations for disaster response and relief.

In Hualien, Donna Wu, deputy director of the county branch of The Mustard Seed Mission, a Christian group, said the response in 2018 had been chaotic and they had learned their lesson.

Taiwan has another compelling reason to ready its response – the potential for attack from China, which has been ramping up military and political pressure to try and force Taiwan’s democratically-elected government to give in to Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

The earthquake alert system, with its piercing alarm sounding on mobile phones, is the same one the government would use to warn of an impending Chinese air raid.

Taiwan holds its Min’an civil defence drills annually, nominally to focus on natural disasters, though last year it also covered how to respond to the aftermath of a Chinese attack as part of those exercises.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, which only began operating in 2022 and has been leading the charge to ensure the resilience of communication networks, reported largely unaffected networks after the latest quake, especially internet services.

Sandra Oudkirk, the de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, praised the response in a message to the Taiwanese people carried on Facebook. “Taiwan has demonstrated a successful model of disaster prevention, disaster management, and humanitarian rescue to communities around the world,” she wrote.

Reuters