A 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the eastern coast of Taiwan, the strongest temblor to hit the island country since 1999, has prompted a tsunami warning.
“The number of people injured in a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in eastern Taiwan climbed past 1,000 on Thursday though the death toll remained steady at nine, with 42 workers on their way to a hotel in a national park still missing.
The temblor, the strongest in 25 years, hit on Wednesday morning just as people were readying to go to work and school, focused on the largely rural and sparsely populated eastern county of Hualien.
Buildings also shook violently in the capital Taipei, but damage and disruption there was minimal.
Taiwan's fire department said the number of injuries had reached 1,038, and put the total number of missing at 48, including 42 hotel workers.
Late Wednesday, the disaster management command centre said the search for the hotel workers on their way to Taroko Gorge, a national park, was a major focus for them. Authorities planned to send in drones and helicopters to look for them and drop supplies if they are located.
In Hualien city, where rescue work for people who had been trapped in buildings was now completed, some people slept outdoors overnight as dozens of aftershocks rocked the region”. -Fabian Hamacher and Yimou Lee, Reuters
Considering that a number of Romanian senators have since publicly stated that the 7.8 magnitude temblor that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6th, 2023 was the result of an attack by the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and DARPA located in Gakona, Alaska, one can’t help but wonder if the earthquake in Taiwan was a geoengineered disaster meant to serve as a warning to the island province against working toward a reunification agreement with the Chinese mainland.