Rescue continues in Taiwan after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocked the southern part of the island on Saturday morning. At least 41 people have been killed. Rescuers have deployed heavy machinery in a renewed effort to locate more than 100 people trapped in the rubble of a 17-story building in Tainan city, as the 72-hour “golden window” for finding survivors passed. Tainan police have arrested the building’s developer on suspicion of negligent homicide. Four days after the earthquake that caused the disaster, hope is starting to fade for over a hundred people that are believed to have been inside.
After days of searching by hand, it was time to get the heavy lifters in, huge excavators and bulldozers moving in to smash up the wreckage of the Wei Guan apartment complex. It may not look like it, but they’re operating with extreme care.The authorities still hold out hope for survivors.
“It appears that there are signs of life. So as a result, we are dealing with this area very carefully. Under these conditions we need to be very careful because we cannot let any sort of possibility of life disappear. At 10 am in the morning, we removed some barricades and have already started search and rescue work because it’s quite close to that area.” Cheng Ming-Chang, Director, Taiwan Civil Engineering Association
As the excavators worked, relatives and friends prayed. This may be their last hope.
The Mayor of Tainan conceded however, that after so much time, he fears the number of fatalities will be more than one hundred. But all hope is not yet gone. Late on Monday afternoon, and eight year old girl pulled from the rubble. She’d been trapped for more than three days…but appeared to be suffering only minor injuries.
“For the child that we saved, as you can see she had been trapped for 72 hours, but when she was saved we found that her body was in normal condition, so we will do whatever we can to help them, but if you say how much time, that depends. As long as we say that there are any life detectors to find any who are still surviving, we will have hope, and then we will save them.”Li Biqing, Doctor
Authorities have also issued an arrest warrant for the developer of the Wei Guan complex. Criminal investigators have been looking at the quality of the building structure… While it was an earthquake that triggered the collapse, this may not have been a natural disaster.
