Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/12
By: Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) The bodies of 15 victims were found in the rubble of a collapsed building in Tainan on Friday morning, bringing the death toll to 82 from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that hit southern Taiwan at 3:57 a.m. on Feb. 6, according to the latest figures released by the National Fire Agency.

Of the 82 people confirmed dead, 80 were killed in the collapse of the Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District, the agency said.

The two others died in the city’s Gueiren District.

As of 8 a.m. Friday, 42 people were still believed to be trapped in the rubble of the collapsed 16-story complex, according to the agency.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan’s president-elect Tsai Ing-wen said on Facebook Thursday that she prays to gods to bless Taiwan and make the country remember lessons learned from each catastrophe that has stricken the country.

As the rescue effort enters its sixth day at the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong building in Taiwan’s southwestern city of Tainan after the Feb. 6 earthquake, Tsai visited a temple near the hometown of her family in the southern county of Pingtung on Thursday.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/11
By: Kuo Chu-chen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) The developer of an apartment complex that collapsed in the magnitude 6.4 earthquake Feb. 6 was found to hold at least 30 plots of land in Tainan, a municipal city in southern Taiwan, the Tainan City Government said Thursday.

On behalf of residents of the collapsed building, the city government filed a petition at the Taiwan Tainan District Court that day for a provisional attachment of the real estate held by Lin Ming-hui (林明輝), former chairman of the now-defunct Weiguan company that built the ill-fated Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan.

The local government also requested for the provisional attachment of the real estate held by two architects, Chang Kui-pao (張魁寶) and Cheng Chin-kui (鄭進貴), who were responsible for the construction of the quake-toppled building.     [FULL  STORY]

COMPLAINTS:A relative of some of the missing in the Tainan complex was upset by the use of an excavator, while TsannKuen Co denied making structural changes

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 12, 2016
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The death toll from the earthquake on Saturday last week rose to 62

yesterday as rescuers pulled nine bodies from the ruins of the Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan, while rain that began to fall at about 5pm brought with it lower temperatures.

Members of two families were among those retrieved from the disaster site in Yongkang District (永康), including two brothers, and a man and a woman whose identity has yet to be confirmed.

One of the families, surnamed Cheng (鄭), were from New Taipei City’s Sindian District and were spending the Lunar New Year holiday in an apartment on the 13th floor of Building G, which was owned by the sister of Cheng’s wife.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior says the death toll from a weekend earthquake has risen to 59, with 76 people still missing and presumed trapped under the rubble of a collapsed residential building

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-11
By: Associated Press

TAINAN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior says the death toll from a weekend earthquake has risen to 59, with 76 people still missing and presumed trapped under the rubble of a collapsed residential building.

The 16-story Weiguan Golden Dragon complex was the only building to collapse during Saturday’s magnitude-6.4 earthquake, which otherwise caused limited damage in the southern city of Tainan.

Government prosecutors have detained three construction company executives on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death amid accusations that the structure, built in 1989, was not properly reinforced.

A total of 327 people in the building survived. Rescuers say the chances of finding more survivors are now slim.     [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A college couple found dead embracing each other at the collapsed building

in Taiwan’s southwestern city of Tainan from Wednesday’s rescue effort made headlines in local dailies on Thursday.

Tsai Meng-chia and his girlfriend, Huang Ru-hsing, both 21, were students of the Kun Shan University, with the former studying electronics and the latter studying fashion.

On the fifth day after the Feb. 6 earthquake, rescuers found Tsai’s hand and foot, and thereafter began to dig out his body carefully from the rubble as the body had some degree of decomposition. To the rescuers’ amazement, Tsai was holding Huang tightly beneath him to protect her from the collapsing pillars and broken walls, which toppled on top of them. A dog, apparently their pet, was also found dead not far from them.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/11
By: Kuo Chu-chen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) The developer of an apartment complex that collapsed in the magnitude 6.4 earthquake Feb. 6 was found to hold at least 30 plots of land in Tainan, a municipal city in southern Taiwan, the Tainan City Government said Thursday.

On behalf of residents of the collapsed building, the city government filed a petition at the Taiwan Tainan District Court that day for a provisional attachment of the real estate held by Lin Ming-hui (林明輝), former chairman of the now-defunct Weiguan company that built the ill-fated Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan.

The local government also requested for the provisional attachment of the real estate held by two architects, Chang Kui-pao (張魁寶) and Cheng Chin-kui (鄭進貴), who were responsible for the construction of the quake-toppled building.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/09
By: Y.F. Low

Taipei, Feb. 9 (CNA) An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 shook

eastern Taiwan at 8:47 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Central Weather Bureau.

The epicenter of the earthquake was about 11.5 kilometers southeast of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 10 km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said.

The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Hualien, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tiered intensity scale.

An intensity reading of 2 was recorded in Yunlin, Nantou and Yilan.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.     [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Relatives of Weiguan victims Thursday were angry about the heavy machinery for tearing down a ramp in Taipei City was not used to rescue people’s lives at the collapsed building in Tainan, questioning if tearing down a ramp more important than saving people’s lives.

The rescue effort at the toppled 16-story Weiguan Jinlong building enters its sixth day on Thursday. In a meeting, relatives of those still trapped inside the building criticized the Tainan City Government for not borrowing the heavy machinery used in the demolition of the Taipei Zhongxiao Bridge ramp, which operated the same time of the rescue effort at the Weiguan building, to speed up the life-saving effort.

In an interview by local media, operators of heavy machinery participating in the demolition of the ramp said since they had finished the work ahead of schedule, they planned to head south to join the rescue effort at the toppled building.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/11
By: Y.F. Low

Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) At least 55 people have died after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan on Feb. 6, according to the latest figures released by the National Fire Agency.

Of the 55 people confirmed dead, 53 were killed in the collapse of the Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District, the agency said.

The two others died in the city’s Gueiren District.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, 83 people were still believed to be trapped in the rubble of the collapsed 16-story complex, according to the agency. [SOURCE]