Earthquake

Taiwan has always been prone to earthquakes but they are commonly centered in the north around Taipei or on the east coast. Last night we had the first here in the west central area since I came to Cihtong.

Perhaps you heard about it, the epicenter was near the city of Kaoshiung about a 3 hour drive south of here but it was definitely noticeable in YunLin County. It happened about 8:30 PM, I had just gotten home from a dinner party and was reading on my bed.

Remember I live on the 7th floor which made the whole thing worse -- the building was really swaying up that high. Like with all bad things, it seems like it lasts forever but was probably only about 10 seconds. My roommate and I had a bit of a nervous chuckle then went back to bed. About 15 minutes later, it happened again. This is getting scary. Many people went outside away from the building (and other structures in the neighborhood) but I couldn't bring myself to leave my nice warm bed and go out there into the cold on the strength of just two tremors.

My concession to the second, though, was to put on a sweatsuit, put slip-on shoes and my jacket right next to the bed so that if there was a third, I would be out of there. Never happened, slept through the night.

The big earthquake that killed 2,000 people happened in 1999 so there are still so many people that haven't quite gotten over that one so the hysteria factor is a little higher than is indicated by the severity of last night's quake. Today, everyone is retelling big earthquake stories ad nauseum.

The actual damage is not too widespread and their were only two deaths -- none of which was around here.