Dog Saved After Three Tainan Earthquake Apartment Collapse Detentions

Summary: Mayor William Lai predicts over 100 dead even though four residents are rescued from a high-rise toppled by Taiwan’s magnitude 6.4 Tainan earthquake.

Le Le ("Happy") is held by a relative of the pet's owner after the seven-year-old Maltese's rescue from a collapsed building complex in Tainan, Taiwan, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016; AP Photo/Johnson Lai): CP24 @CP24 via Twitter Feb. 10, 2016

The Tainan District Prosecutors Office announced approval of three Tainan earthquake apartment collapse detentions Feb. 10, 2016, as part of the investigation into the magnitude 6.4 Tainan earthquake of Feb. 2, 2016.

Prosecutors based decisions to detain architects Cheng Chin-kui and Chang Kui-an and developer Lin Ming-hui upon the collapse of the Weiguan Jinlong (Golden Dragon) apartment building. The 17-story high-rise combines lower floors devoted to various businesses with upper floors occupied by apartment dwellers in one building whose construction dates back to 1989. Reports of the earthquake’s human fatalities and injuries and structural damages describe Weiguan Jinlong as the only one of 11 collapsed buildings to crumble into chunks.

The three Tainan earthquake apartment collapse detentions ensue from 45 of the 47 fatalities occurring in Weiguan Jinlong.

Eyewitness accounts of Weiguan Jinlong’s collapse furnish allegations of half the necessary fasteners to support columns and of plastic foam and tin cans serving as wall-fillers.

Location on the eruption-, subduction- and tsunami-riddled Pacific Ring of Fire along continental and insular America, Asia and Australia gives the Taiwanese regular experiences with earthquakes. Taiwanese in the Republic of China hold collective memories of the 2,161-fatality Ji-Ji earthquake Sept. 20, 1999, and of the 3,276-fatality Hsinchu-Taichung quake April 21, 1935. Twenty-first century responses to pre-20th-century anecdotes and to 20th-century experiences include earthquake preparedness through construction standards for commercial, governmental and residential buildings throughout the insular Republic.

Excavation machinery personnel joined the search for survivors by emergency rescue workers after Monday’s three Tainan earthquake apartment collapse detentions.

Neighborhood estimates and official tallies of missing persons keep 23 dogs and 8,000 firefighters canvassing rubble and 1,050 volunteers providing compassionate relief steps ahead of excavators. Official estimates list the number of persons known to be missing at a total of 94, with 21 children and 73 adults, just from Weiguan Jinlong. The Tainan earthquake tolls mean that lunar New Year’s Eve celebrations and lunar New Year’s Day festivities Feb. 6 and 7, 2016, lack their traditional exuberance. Simon Chang, Taiwanese premier since Feb. 1, 2016, notes that government agencies will fly national flags at half-mast Feb. 15, 2016, in honor of earthquake victims. The Taiwan Water Corporation offers water supplies from 130 water trucks to 50,000 households whose running-water services, disrupted by ruptured underground pipes, resumes Feb. 13, 2016.

Statistics regarding earthquake tolls on animals and plants prove scanty even though earthquake preparedness includes observation of changes in animal behavior in the days before tremors. Tainan earthquake tolls quantify the last live recoveries from the Weiguan Jinlong apartment building Feb. 8, 2016, followed by an unexpected, canine removal Feb. 10, 2016.

The cousin and the sister of 50-year-old Lin Shiu-chu, hospitalized with broken arms and fractured ribs, revealed that Wednesday’s live recovery involved a seven-year-old Maltese dog. They stated in retrieving their brother’s and their cousin’s beloved Le Le (Happy) from a temporary shelter that rescuers must be thanked “for saving all lives.”

Twenty-three-year-old Lin Chia-yu told reporters with the Central News Agency of Taiwan that “Dogs’ lives also need to be cherished.”

The 17-story Weiguan Jinlong (Golden Dragon) apartment building on Yongda Road collapsed during Feb. 6 Tainan earthquake; Feb. 7, 2016, photo: ScoutT7, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Le Le ("Happy") is held by a relative of the pet's owner after the seven-year-old Maltese's rescue from a collapsed building complex in Tainan, Taiwan, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016; AP Photo/Johnson Lai): CP24 @CP4 via Twitter Feb. 10, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/CP24/status/697428649688096768

The 17-story Weiguan Jinlong (Golden Dragon) apartment building on Yongda Road collapsed during Feb. 6 Tainan earthquake; Feb. 7, 2016, photo: ScoutT7, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weiguan_Jinlong_residential_building.jpg

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