We're OK! This morning, just before 8 AM here in Taiwan, the biggest earthquake in 25 years said "Good morning!" and gave us quite the shake to start the day.
The epicenter was next to Hualien on Taiwan's east coast. Something like 95% of the population of Taiwan lives on the west coast or Taipei. Hualien, however, is a very popular tourist city (it's on our list to visit!) and has a reputation for great food (sound familiar?). Other than Yilan to the north, it's probably one of the bigger population centers on the east coast. You can see Taichung, where we live, on this map, to the left.
Normally, we would have left our apartment by 7:40 AM and just been pulling up to school to drop the kids off at about 8. However, tomorrow is Children's Day, so the kids had a late start and early dismissal. We were home, and just before 8, our phones went off with a Presidential alert followed almost immediately by strong shaking. Why the lack of warning? I read earlier today that the office that monitors the sensors believed it would be a 4.0 magnitude quake so they did not send a warning right away. I'm pretty sure whomever made that decision was in fact sent away very quickly.
When we were looking at apartments, Kelley kept saying that high rise units were a no-go for her, given that we'd have to climb stairs in the event of an earthquake, and you feel the swaying much more. I laughed it off then, but I should have taken it more seriously! Luckily, we landed in a unit on the 4th floor of a 19 story building. When the quake hit, it wasn't a building crescendo of shaking. It started, and then cranked it up with feeling. Our building started "bouncing" vertically and then introduced a horizontal sway to it and it was oddly rhythmic and consistent for the majority of the duration. The horizontal and vertical shaking combined made it feel to me like some kind of carnival ride that dips up and down in a wide "U" shape. When it started, Ava, Kelley, and I were in the living room, and Jack was reading in his room and as we shook for almost 5 minutes, Kelley recollected, "If we lived on a higher floor, I would have found Jesus". We called Jack to come out so we could be together, and this kid comes leisurely strolling through an earthquake! We hunkered down as a few small items started falling off of our desks, and Ava had books and games slide off of one of her shelves. Luckily, we used built in shelving and have low slung furniture, so we didn't have a ton of vertical space in our place for things to fall off and break.
Ava was pretty shook up so we called Kelley's mom so she could chat on Facetime and take her mind off things...Which worked well until we were hit with a 6.5 magnitude aftershock while on the call with her! As we started shaking again, I took her on the iPad and Jack with me to a doorway and the 3 of us rode it out together virtually. Later in the morning, I had a call and we had 2 more aftershocks big enough to shake my desk! We felt a few more throughout the day. It got to the point where you could close your eyes and imagine the the ground moving - it turns out sitting through one of these can really mess with your sense of vertigo!
Our building staff was very professional and immediately shut down the elevators, opened all of the building doors, and checked for gas leaks or broken lines. They had everything clear by lunch. My favorite part of the day was texting with the kids' teachers to ask if school would be open and getting the following response:
"The school is open".
Most. Asian. Response. Ever. And it was.
There are lots of photos and videos out there - these are ones that we haven't seen as widespread and give you an idea of what it was like.
What it was like on a bridge
MRT train line shaking
Debris falling at a construction site. That crane gave me straight anxiety for 39 seconds.
And who doesn't love a good pool slosh?
I need this guy's energy
All kidding aside, what struck us the most was how calm and professional everyone was. Yes, earthquakes are common and frequent in Taiwan. But having a population that knows what to do and a government that has been through this before provides comfort. For us here in Taichung, since there wasn't much physical damage, most of the city just went on with their day!
The last big quake was on Sept 21, 1999. (9/21 quake or just 921 quake) That one was a 7.4, but it was centered in the middle of the island and hit in the middle of the night. It still killed 2,400 people but it would have been much worse if it hit during morning rush hour like today. It was so impactful that Taiwan has a museum dedicated to the earthquake and its victims. The museum is built around the preserved grounds of Guangfu Junior High school, which collapsed during the quake. We actually took the kids there in the fall!
Train tracks bent during the 921 quake // The end of the school building sheared off // Multiple floors "pancaked" on top of each other. Luckily the quake hit in the middle of the night, so nobody was there.
All in all, it was an eventful day. They tell us to expect follow up quakes and aftershocks in the next few days, some with the potential to be in the 7's again. I'm hoping we really don't see that!
PS - I made another YT video! I joined Logan on a gig at a local Taiwanese bakery. Check it out while you're here!
~ bzz~
Alex.
Thanks for the update and glad to hear everyone is fine. Had to laugh at "yeah, the school is open; what's your problem?" You have 40 years to embellish the story to tell to your great grandchildren. I expect a "I Survived the 2024 Earthquake" T-shirt (M).