Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-15
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Kaohsiung city will soon begin a city-wide inspection of old apartment buildings built before the September 21 earthquake in 1999, also known as the 921 Earthquake, reports said Monday.

There are currently more than 6,000 old buildings that need to be structurally reinforced or torn down to prevent another Weiguan Jinlong incident from happening in future, which collapsed in the wake of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake on February 6, Chao Chien-chiao said, director of Kaohsiung City’s Public Works Bureau.

According to Chao, the inspection efforts will last through April, including areas prone to soil liquefaction.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/15
By Lee Shu-hua and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Feb. 15 (CNA) The national flag was being flown at half-mast at

Taiwan’s government agencies Monday in mourning of the 116 people who lost their lives in the Feb. 6 earthquake.

The Presidential Office and the Cabinet also canceled Chinese Lunar New Year gatherings that had been scheduled for Monday, the first working day after a nine-day New Year holiday.

The magnitude 6.4 earthquake, which was centered in Meinong District in Kaohsiung, left 116 people dead, all in Tainan, and 550 others injured around Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-14
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The army pitched in with the city-wide disinfection job in Tainan by mobilizing a unit specializing in chemicals to help sanitize the 46,500-square meter disaster site following the end of search and rescue efforts in southern Taiwan, the military source said Sunday

Disinfection efforts are vital to preventing, detecting, and responding to public health threats before they become crises and to protecting the health of the local community,” the Ministry of National Defense explained during a press conference in the morning.

Tainan City government called off rescue missions in the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex, from which 114 people were found dead, bringing the death toll to 116 in a 6.4- magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan on February 6.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/14
By: Yang Sz-ruei and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Feb. 14 (CNA) Prosecutors have launched an investigation into

allegations that structural changes in the lower stories of the Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan were responsible for its collapse that killed 114 people in the Feb. 6 earthquake, the Tainan District Prosecutors Office said Sunday.

Some residents have alleged that partition walls and columns on the first and second floors of the complex had been removed by their owner before they were rented out to an electronics store operator.

Besides examining the complex’s original building plan, prosecutors have also summoned many people for questioning, including the owner of the first and second floors, employees of the tenant, residents of the complex, and a security guard at the complex, the office said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2016
By: Ho Shih-chang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A “severe test” awaits commuters returning to work today after the nine-day

Lunar New Year holiday, as a new road construction project is to begin following the demolition of a Zhongxiao Bridge (忠孝橋) onramp next to the Taipei Railway Station, former Taipei City Government Department of Transportation commissioner Jason Lin (林志盈) said yesterday.

“Forgive me for being pessimistic, but the New Taipei City Government already foresees traffic backups of up to 5km or even 10km on connecting roads to Zhongxiao Bridge, Zhongxing Bridge (中興橋) and Taipei Bridge at New Taipei City’s end,” he said on Facebook.

In Taipei, commuters should expect traffic jams on Civic Boulevard, the Huanhe Expressway and the above-mentioned three bridges, he added.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-13
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Two days ahead of the Lunar New Year, on February 6, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Southern Taiwan, leaving 116 dead and 11 collapsed buildings in Tainan City in its wake.

The 16-story-tall Weiguan Jinlong building in the Yongkang District was one of those buildings, on its own responsible for 114 of the dead. The tragedy is not only a natural disaster, it is also a man-made calamity.

For at least a part, voters allowed local and central governments not to do anything about disaster prevention management, while also allowing politicians on central and local levels to spend budgets on minor elements instead.

During the week since the quake, netizens succeeded in locating the company responsible for the collapsed project, leading to the detention of the main developer, Lin Ming-hui. A lecture from last summer by former Interior Minister Lee Hong-yuan was shared online because he told his audience that Taiwan lacked an earthquake prevention consciousness and might one day pay dearly for that.     [FULL  STORY]

EXPANDED EXAMINATIONS:A project to evaluate the structural safety of buildings and to provide subsidies for improvements was expanded to 2,000 buildings

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 14, 2016
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) at 4:20pm yesterday announced that the

search-and-rescue operation at the Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan, which collapsed in an earthquake on Feb. 6, has come to an end, after the body of the last missing resident was found.

According to Central Emergency Operations Center statistics, the death toll from the magnitude 6.4 earthquake yesterday rose to a total of 116, of which 114 occurred at the Weiguan Jinlong complex, with one person who lived near the complex still missing.

The last body, which was recovered at 3:57pm yesterday, was the building’s management committee chairman, Hsieh Chen-Yu (謝鎮宇), who lived in building G, Lai said.

Tainan Deputy Mayor Tseng Hsu-cheng (曾旭正) said the only person still missing after the earthquake is a woman surnamed Lin (林), who lived near the Weiguan Jinlong complex and had a habit of going out to exercise early every morning. Lin’s family has been unable to contact her since the earthquake.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/13
By: Huang Kuo-fang, Chang Jung-hsiang and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) Tainan City government called off rescue missions in the rubble of a collapsed apartment complex Saturday, from which 114 people were found dead, bringing the death toll to 116 in a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that hit southern Taiwan Feb. 6.

Of the 116 confirmed deaths, 32 bodies from the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District, including those of two boys, were yet to be claimed, the city government said.

Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (賴清德) called off the rescue missions after the last body — that of Hsieh Chen-yu (謝鎮宇), head of the building’s management committee — was found at 3:57 p.m., 180 hours after the quake hit at 3:57 a.m. last Saturday.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/13
By: Huang Kuo-fang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) The remains of the last unaccounted-for resident of an apartment complex in Tainan that collapsed when a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan last week have been found, Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Saturday.

Based on household data and resident reports, the victim was Hsieh Chen-yu (謝鎮宇), head of the building’s management committee, Lai said.

The finding brings the rescue mission to a conclusion, he said at a press conference held at 4:20 p.m. on the progress of the search for the residents of the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District who remained unaccounted for.

Hsieh “might have wanted to wait until everyone else had left,” Lai said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-13
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A new app that turns a smartphone into a mobile seismometer is being

launched by California scientists following a deadly earthquake that rattled southern Taiwan on February 6. On top of that, there are a few earthquake alert-like apps free for downloading into your mobile phones which can send warnings a few seconds ahead of the tremor. To help yourself and your loved one, get to know some of these apps.

A 6.4-magnitude tremor turned nine buildings into ruins in Tainan, among which a toppled 16-story residential building which took away 115 lives as of noon February 13. If these people had been informed of a strong quake ten seconds earlier, they might take immediate protective action to save their own lives.     [FULL  STORY]