Evening newspaper has it that Luku has been isolated- both road transport and telecommunications. the area is also threatened with food shortage. More than 200 houses have collapsed and death toll currently stands at 17 with hundreds still being buried underground. there is also shortage of water, electricity and medical care products.

C.J. Yeh
Taipei

We're looking for our friend, Sophia Sun and her family, they live in Taipei. If anyone know of them, please email us. Or Sophia, if you read the message, please phone us.

My thought and prayers are with people in Taiwan
I live in San Diego California. Very concern about the safety of my uncle Chang Pei, a chinese classical music instructor at Nantou County Dzin Ai Kwok Chung Middle School. I've tried to reach him for days but the phone line couldn't get through. Would you please let me know if anyone have any info about him and his family lives at the address: 83 Ming Chou Rd.
Puli- Nantou County
please contact me, I'm very appreciate for your help and your kindnest. Thank you so much.

Any Overseas Taiwanese here? Visit my forum at
http://forum.onecenter.com/taiwan/

anyone heard of Edmond Gaible?
thanks.

More Than 1,800 Dead, 4,400 Injured as Quake Devastates Taiwan


TAIPEI, Sept 22 (AFP) - More than 1,800 people were killed and 4,400 injured
Tuesday as Taiwan was devastated by its strongest earthquake this century,
sparking a desperate rescue to free hundreds buried alive.
Barely a building was left untouched in the worst hit areas as a quake of up
to 8.1 on the Richter scale brought high rise flats full of sleeping
residents crashing to the ground in the early hours.

The town of Puli, nearest the epicentre in central Taiwan, reported 98
percent structural damage.

More than 1,000 aftershocks of up to 6.8 on the Richter scale were recorded
in the 18 hours after the quake, officials said.

Several thousand troops joined rescue workers and medical teams swamped with
casualties. Army helicopters and vehicles were mobilised alongside
bulldozers to pull terrified residents from the rubble of their homes.

Buddhist charities and authorities set up emergency centres providing food
and bedding for the tens of thousands of homeless. Most survivors said they
would sleep in the open for fear of more aftershocks.

But the sheer scale of the disaster appeared almost overwhelming: one
hospital in Nantou, the worst affected province, began laying bodies in the
street.

Peng Pai-hsien, Nantou magistrate, said "the morgues are full" and asked for
refrigerators and body bags.

"We need whatever help you can give. We need doctors and nurses to take care
of the injured ones, and we need vehicles to transport them to hospitals in
other towns," he said.

"We need food, tents and temporary shelters to relieve the estimated 100,000
homeless." Elsewhere efforts to reach those trapped or injured were
frustrated by downed telephone lines and roads which were torn in two or
frozen in grotesque waves. The quake also set off numerous landslides.

A ministry of interior spokesman said the government had not even begun to
assess the total damage to roads, railways, and communications.

Medical staff were hampered by widespread power cuts: the spokesman said 5.6
million households were hit by outages after pylon collapse.

A spokesman for Taiwan Power said two hydro-electric dams in the eastern
mountains were damaged, but refused to specify beyond saying engineers had
spotted "abnormal signs." Rescue officials said at least 1,863 people were
killed and 4,486 injured while 2,615were trapped in toppled buildings or
missing.

The quake hit around 1:47 a.m. (1747 GMT Monday), with its epicenter 12.5
kilometers (seven miles) west of Sun Moon Lake in Nantou county, one of
Taiwan's biggest resort areas, Taiwan's seismology center said.

Its magnitude was estimated at 7.3 on the Richter scale by Taiwanese
officials, 7.6 by Chinese seismologists and 8.1 by their French
counterparts. Last month's 7.4 earthquake in Turkey left 15,613 dead and
24,941 injured.

Tremors were felt more than 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in Hong Kong and
the southeastern Chinese cities of Xiamen and Wenzhou.

"The quake was the largest one to hit the western part of the island in
nearly 100 years," said Liu Yue-long, deputy director of the seismology
center.

Center director Kuo Kai-wen warned of aftershocks of up to 6.0 for a week.

Scenes of devastation were repeated across the island with all central
cities affected, state radio said.

President Lee Teng-hui, Vice President Lien Chan and Premier Vincent Siew
flew by helicopter to Nantou.

Lee urged calm: "I ask the public to stay calm and the government will do
its best to help the people recover from the trauma and the damage. Prompt
steps will be taken to restore power and water supply and traffic." In the
capital Taipei, in the north of the island, damage was limited to two
collapsed buildings: the first four floors of a 12-storey block in the
centre disappeared into the ground.

US President Bill Clinton was the first international leader to offer
sympathy and assistance.

"Our thoughts are with all of those who have suffered losses and who may
still be in need of assistance," Clinton said.

Taipei's bitter rival Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island, put
aside simmering differences and offered immediate help.

"We are willing to offer any possible assistance to alleviate the
quake-caused losses," Chinese President Jiang Zemin said.

The unfolding scale of the tragedy "hurt the hearts of the people on the
mainland," Jiang said.

Japan said it would send 100 firefighters and police and 500,000 US dollars,
Singapore 39 workers, including members of its elite disaster rescue team,
the Philippines offered relief aid, Russia said it would send a 17-member
rescue team and Hong Kong said it was considering help. Pope John Paul sent
condolences.

Regional industry analysts said the disruption to Taiwan's core
semiconductor industry would raise world prices. The total damages cost was
certain to run into billions of US dollars.

Seismologists have warned for years that Taiwan could be in for a
devastating quake at the end of a relatively calm 30-year cycle.

The island of 22 million people lies on a major fault line which runs down
the east coast. Thousands of minor tremors shake Taiwan every year.

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If you can read Chinese please enter this web:
http://www.chinatimes.com.tw/

You can also read English here:
http://www.chinatimes.com.tw/english/english.htm

I am trying to contact one of my dearest friends in Taiwan, without success so far. Could someone please tell me if the following city is very affected by the earthquake (I am not sure about the spelling) :

Yuan Lin Chen, Changua Hsien

Any comment or news whatsoever will be very much appreciated. Good luck to everyone!!

Joep Munten
The Netherlands

joepmunten@hotmail.com

I am wondering about the well being of our friends Edmond Gaible and Sandra from San Francisco (USA) who are visiting Taiwan.

Please help if you have any information.
Thanks,
Fulya

UPDATE:

My family spoke with my cousin who is in Taichung. We also received email from him. If you are trying to find someone in Taiwan, just keep phoning and emailing. The power is coming on and off, depending on the schedule and situation. The aftershocks are huge and many. The lastest report is that the military has all been sent home to be with their families because some authority has reported that another as large or larger quake will occur in the night, in the next 12ish hours from now. Everyone my cousin knows is outside for the night, structures being too unsafe and the next quake scaring them. God be with them.

Lora

I am concerned about my friends Liang Chung Tse, his sister Liang Su Chen and nephew Chen Ming Ming. They live in the Ta An area of Taipei, Su-wei Rd. If anyone knows them please let me know they and their family are all safe or ask them to contact me. jane.crawford@midlothian.gov.uk

My sister was able to e-mail that she is ok, she
said that there was a whole lot of shaking but
very little damage in Peitou and as far as she was
aware no one there was hurt. She said that the
biggest problem was that the power has been out
for the past couple of days. So of course that
meant no computers or e-mail. She also thought
that the power might go out again at any time.
She tried calling several times but international
calls were not going out so keep that in mind when
worrying about your family or friends not calling
you yet.

All my friends work at the Taiwan Folk Village in Chang Hwa and I can't get onto them, please tell me that they are safe. I have been to the Australian Embassy today but they said I had to just keep trying to get through on the phone. All I wan't to know is if they are alive. I'm so worried. If anyone has heard how the situation is in Chang Hwa, please write to me, I can't bear not knowing for any longer. I love them all so much. Please help me.
Beck Hodgson
Melbourne, Australia.

we are concerned about our adopted son Lin Schmitt's family memebers,Chen Li-Chin,Chen Ying-hau, Piang feng-mei,Chen Ying-Chi,Yau mei-shiu, Chen Tu-mu,Chen Ying-shou,Yen Su-hua,Chen Li-yun,Yang Chien-hung,Chen Li-hai, Chen Yin-shu, and their families. They live in various cities, Taipei,Toliu,Taichung, in Taiwan. Please help us find out how they are. We send our prayers. Karen and Arden Schmitt aj@safelink.net