Southern Californians In Taiwan Describe Quake As 'One Of The Largest Shakes' Ever Felt

Irvine immigration lawyer Danny Chen has felt hundreds of earthquakes in Taiwan, starting from when he was a child growing up on the tremor-prone island to now, as an adult who travels there monthly for work.

Most of those quakes were forgettable. Wednesday morning's was not.

Chen was on the phone with a client in his high-rise condo in the capital of Taipei when the walls started to shake from side to side in a violent manner he hadn't experienced in decades.

The refrigerator traveled 5 feet from the kitchen to the living room before Chen leapt in front of its path.

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The water main to his building burst. Next door, tiles popped off the building. On the subway, riders clung tight to their seats as trains rocked unsteadily on the rails.

"It was one of the largest shakes I've ever experienced in my life," said the 43-year-old Chen.

Seismologists say the 7.4-magnitude quake was the strongest to strike the island in a quarter century.

The coming days will give a fuller picture of the destruction from the quake, which appears concentrated in Hualien County on the east coast, about 100 miles from Taipei. At least nine people were killed and hundreds more were injured.

A man looks at the cordoned-off site of a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Taiwan's strongest earthquake in a quarter century rocked the island during the morning rush hour Wednesday, damaging buildings and highways.

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Chiang Ying-ying

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AP

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Christina Lee, who also lives in Taipei, was in bed with her child when their fifth-floor apartment started to shake. They could hear things fall from the building under construction next door.

It felt like minutes, when it was really seconds, Lee said.

"You just kind of feel discombobulated," said Lee, who moved to Taipei from Los Angeles in 2021. "You kind of feel like you're floating and on a boat. You don't know if it's still aftershocks or if you're feeling the dizziness of how long it was."

Aftershocks measured as large as magnitude 6.4. — almost as strong as the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Still, regular life on Taiwan quickly resumed and people continued their morning commutes, with the subway system operating after being temporarily suspended. During the quake, Chen stayed on the phone with his client, talking through the trembler using his Apple AirPods. Afterward, he went to the gym.

"Because it happens so much more frequently, people have the anticipation that it's going to pass," Chen said. "You're going to be jolted for a few seconds but things will go back to normal."

Taiwan is at particular risk of earthquakes because, like California, it is located along the “Ring of Fire,” a tectonic belt of volcanoes surrounding most of the Pacific Ocean. Quakes can feel more pronounced on the densely-populated, mountainous island which sits on one of the ring's most seismically active zones.

Chen, who is president of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in Orange County, expects that his organization of professionals with business ties to Taiwan would help in any relief efforts.

Passengers wait to board a southbound train as some train services were suspended in the aftermath of an earthquake in Taipei.

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Chiang Ying-ying

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AP

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Chen imagines Californians would react differently to a similar quake.

"In California, it doesn't happen all that often and we're always talking about the 'Big One,' right?" Chen said. "So there's always that fear."