ad info




TIME Asia
TIME Asia Home
Current Issue
Magazine Archive
Asia Buzz
Travel Watch
Web Features
  Entertainment
  Photo Essays

Subscribe to TIME
Customer Services
About Us
Write to TIME Asia

TIME.com
TIME Canada
TIME Europe
TIME Pacific
TIME Digital
Asiaweek
Latest CNN News

Young China
Olympics 2000
On The Road

 ASIAWEEK.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL


Other News
From TIME Asia

Culture on Demand: Black is Beautiful
The American Express black card is the ultimate status symbol

Asia Buzz: Should the Net Be Free?
Web heads want it all -- for nothing

JAPAN: Failed Revolution
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clings to power as dissidents in his party finally decide not to back a no-confidence motion

Cover: Endgame?
After Florida's controversial ballot recount, Bush holds a 537-vote lead in the state, which could give him the election

TIME Digest
FORTUNE.com
FORTUNE China
MONEY.com

TIME Asia Services
Subscribe
Subscribe to TIME! Get up to 3 MONTHS FREE!

Bookmark TIME
TIME Media Kit
Recent awards

TIME Asia Asiaweek Asia Now TIME Asia story

COVER STORY: OCTOBER 4, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 13

The Day Taiwan Crumbled
After a devastating quake, the island starts to pick up the pieces
By ANTHONY SPAETH

You probably won't notice any butterflies in Puli this week. The little town near Taiwan's Central Mountain Range has long been known for its butterflies, as well as its Buddhist temples, scenery and rice wine. If you could forget the fact that Puli--along with the rest of Taiwan--is located directly atop the juncture of the geological yin and yang known as the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates, the town would seem positively idyllic.

    ALSO IN TIME
Taiwan: The Day the Earth Moved:
A devastating earthquake rocks the island; the tragedy is exacerbated not only by vicious aftershocks but by a slow and sometimes inefficient rescue effort

Bouncing Back:
Taiwan Inc. will recover quickly

Kobe's Lesson:
It's easier to rebuild bridges than psyches

Quick Facts

Related Sites

  RELATED STORIES
CNN
Breaking news from East Asia

Significant quakes in Taiwan area, 1980-1999

ASIAWEEK
Terror from Underground
Without warning, the earth moved under Taiwan, triggering the island's worst natural disaster in 64 years. Political aftershocks will be felt locally--and in China

  MESSAGE BOARD
Taiwan quake

Last week, the plates made it impossible to forget. At 1:47 on Tuesday morning, Taiwan was slammed by an earthquake that measured 7.3 on the Richter scale, and Puli, near the epicenter, was wrenched about like a butterfly in a malevolent storm. Buildings peeled open like dollhouses, walls stripped away and still-furnished rooms exposed to the air. The ground split in violent schisms. In the aftermath, pedigreed house dogs searched for their owners on roads littered with doleful debris: a crate of tennis shoes, a spice cabinet, a human arm.

By week's end, the islandwide death toll from Taiwan's biggest quake since 1935 was nearly 2,000, a figure that could rise as more bodies are pulled out of the rubble. More than 8,500 people were injured, 100,000 were made temporarily homeless and 6,000 buildings were wrecked. Relief workers from the United States, Turkey, Russia, Japan and elsewhere mobilized to help. An aftershock was even felt on stock exchanges worldwide as punters panicked about a shutdown of Taiwan's giant microchip and circuit board industries and the impact on the always-jumpy electronics sector. (That turned out to be an overreaction: as soon as the island's electricity supply is restored, the electronics factories are expected to be back in business.) And on Saturday night, President Lee Teng-hui signed an emergency decree that, if the legislature approves it, will give the military enhanced powers to maintain order and will allow for severe punishment of black-marketeers and others who try to take advantage of the devastating quake.

A rumble in the dead of night, terror and chaos, cries from horrific ruins: only weeks after the disastrous earthquakes in Turkey and Greece, which killed thousands, the news from Taiwan seemed diabolically familiar, as if the 20th century was going out in a pile of rubble. The only good news from the experts is that the quakes aren't connected. "There's no El Niño-like effect that has caused this chain of earthquakes," says American seismologist John Greeling, who flew to Taiwan from California. "It's just a bad coincidence." Taiwan's temblor was geostratically inevitable. The Eurasian plate overlaps the Philippine Sea plate to the north of the island and sinks under it to the south. The result is 51 fault lines scoring Taiwan, 20 serious quakes this century--and the distinct chance of more coming soon. "It is very possible that Taiwan will be hit with the recurring nightmare of high-scale aftershocks in the next two to three months," says Wei Kuo-yen, professor of geology at National Taiwan University.


John Stanmeyer/Saba for TIME
An aftershock registering 6.3 sends rescue workers running for safety from inside a destroyed home in Puli.

In Puli, a ghostly calm descended as survivors contemplated picking up the pieces. Chiang Shih-wen, a 28-year-old high-school teacher, sat with her 90-year-old grandmother in a tent on a school playing field surrounded by household articles they had removed from their home for safety: pots and pans, a couple of pillows, photo albums. The two were waiting to hear whether their home was safe to return to. "When things like this happen in other places, you don't really take notice," said Chiang. "But if it's your own town, you understand that every death figure includes a person that you knew."

PAGE 1 | 2 | 3

This edition's table of contents
TIME Asia home


AsiaNow


   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search

Back to the top   © 2000 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.