A cataclysmic quake registering 7.3 on the Richter scale hit the Island in the darkness hour of 1:47 a.m. local time on September 21. The earthquake and its aftershocks slammed much of the infrastructure in disarray. Telecommunications services were down. An estimated 35 million cellular phones, roughly 32% of the total, were out of service. Field deployable communications systems were flown in for the rescue operation. Landline services near the epi-center were down and at least a submarine cable was down. The latter caused telecommunications between Taiwan and Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and the US to be temporarily out of service. Power outages affected much of the north and included the capital city of Taipei. Power did return to normal a couple weeks after the quake but not for towns and villages where the most devastation took place. All resources needed for the rescue operation were shifted to the quake sites. The government promptly issued disaster alerts and called for conservation of electricity and water. We at the NCHC, blessed to have our own generator, voluntarily cut back on power consumption and were functioning in half capacity for central air conditioning. We apologize for the delay in sending out this issue of the newsletter.

back