Helicopters continued on Saturday to evacuate dozens of tourists trapped for four days by landslides in a mountain range in the east of the island of Taiwan shaken by a powerful earthquake which left at least thirteen dead, according to a new report. The 7.4 magnitude earthquake, the most powerful in 25 years in Taiwan, also left six people missing and more than 1,100 injured. Taiwanese authorities revised the number of deaths upwards on Saturday after recovering three bodies located the day before on a hiking trail.
More than 600 people remained stranded in tunnels or areas cut off by landslides, while rescue workers delivered food by helicopter to many isolated residents, according to the national disaster agency. At the epicenter of the earthquake, Hualien, a city of 100,000 inhabitants on the eastern coast, has suffered more than 300 aftershocks since Wednesday, including a 5.2 magnitude tremor on Saturday morning.
Helicopters have multiplied the rotations
Helicopters increased their rotations on Saturday to shelter tourists trapped in Taroko National Park, a mountain range which attracts hikers for its deep gorges. In the morning, an aircraft was able to evacuate twelve people, while a second helicopter sheltered sixteen others, noted an AFP journalist. “Priority is given to the elderly and frail, women, children and people suffering from chronic illnesses,” announced the Taiwanese news site ET Today.
“Even though everyone was tired when they returned from the mountain, everyone had a smile on their face,” according to the same site. An airlift was also set up with a luxury hotel, where more than 400 tourists and employees remained trapped after the earthquake. Helicopters also delivered food to isolated people, such as a group of students, teachers and residents stranded in an inaccessible elementary school. Elsewhere, rescuers worked to clear roads and tunnel entrances blocked by huge blocks of stone.
“The rescuers are not giving up,” said Taiwan Vice President-elect Hsiao Bi-khim, calling them “true heroes of a resilient Taiwan.” According to a preliminary report from the National Earthquake Engineering Research Center released Friday, 84 buildings were “severely damaged” by the earthquake, most of them in Hualien County, located about 100 kilometers southeast of the capital Taipei.