Nature's Fury In Taiwan

And so the earth moves – again. Taiwan now becomes the latest victim of a powerful earthquake – 7.6 magnitude; stronger than the quake that caused such wholesale devastation in Turkey last month.

This earthquake does not seem to have exacted as heavy a toll. Though Taiwan's misery is great: One cannot view deaths likely to approach or exceed 2000 any other way.

That the epicenter of the quake fell in a less populous region, 90 miles south of the capital city Taipei, is one sure reason the destruction was not greater. Also sadly inescapable is that the contrast with Turkey's high casualties may be a reflection of Taiwan's greater modernization.

We are seeing, in Taiwan, a government that is responding with all due alacrity. President Lee Teng-hui exemplified this in quickly helicoptering to Taichung, the city closest to the epicenter, to survey and direct relief efforts.

And if any good can be taken from this sort of tragedy, there are signs that the thaw in Greek-Turkish tensions brought by recent earthquakes in both nations might have a slight analog in this disaster: the mainland Chinese government has extended condolences and offers of aid. Though the subtext remains that the Taiwanese are countrymen not only in spirit, but in a
literal, political sense.

Meanwhile Taiwan digs out its battered survivors and its dead. And we are reminded, again, of what awesome force sleeps beneath the earth.