Waiting to hear from friends and family in Hualien...I know most of the buildings I've seen that collapsed so far....still haven't found a human casualty yet..hopefully it stays that way. My heart goes out to the people of Hualien...a place I called home for 20 years.
https://www.mtu.edu/geo/community/seismology/learn/earthquake-measure/magnitude/ I gave your wife about a magnitude 4.3 last night.
3 hikers died from a rock slide in Taroko Gorge, one of the wonders of the world, jade, marble mountains with a temple and hot springs..one person in Hualien has also died bringing it to 4 so far RIP. My son and I used to hike there often and go to the hot springs. Taroko Gorge is about 45 minute drive north in the mountains up the coast from Hualien City but still in Hualien County
Very sad news. Taiwan is a beautiful country. My visit there was full of good suprises. Driving through tunnels made of marble is an experience I will never forget. The people were wonderful and friendly. I felt very safe everwhere, even when exploring on my own. The National (? forgot the name) Museum in Taipei is a must see.
National Palace Museum...all the stuff saved from the Mao Red Guard revolutions purge and destruction....Taiwan is a wonderful country with wonderful people. I miss living there often. Who else in the world would write a complete poem on a grain of rice? They have that display at the international airport in Taoyuan...with powerful magnifying glasses to read the poems in old traditional calligraphy. My wife goes back often now and we'll go together when the grandkids are both starting school so we can snowbird for a winter. Some of the happiest years of our lives were in Hualien
So far all of our in laws and my wife's high school friends are OK.....they are checking in on her facebook account one by one and seems the worst is over for now. Our house whcih is two blocks from the ocean is undamaged as are the wife's relatives houses in the neighborhood. We went through several large quakes over the years there and the two story houses have no problem....people shouldn't make any buildings over a couple of stories high in earthquake country...notice all the damage is always the high rise structures usually 5 or more stories high
no..Taiwan has a big seawall off the coast to break up any big waves before they hit shore...the mountains in Hualien are really steep unlike some flat islands. The ocean off the eastern coast is really deep and sheer dropoff...there's no body of land between the US and Taiwan so it gets the full force of the Pacific ...very few beaches there..3 fault lines cross Taiwan ..the only place on earth where that occurs
I was on the beach in Seaside when a helicopter flew up the beast blasting a megaphone to evacuate title wave alert. It was the 1964 9.2 Alaskan quake. My folks put us in the station wagon and we heading back towards Portland.
