On April 6, four days after the earthquake occurred off the coast of Hualien, the number of victims announced by the Taiwanese authorities' Disaster Response Center rose to 13. The three newly confirmed deceased were missing people on the Taroko Shakadang Trail, two of whom were father and daughter.
A missing person found by the search and rescue team in Shakadang on the 6th was a 21-year-old woman previously identified. She had no vital signs when she was found. Team members removed the body from the rockfall that day and took it to the funeral home.
As for the large number of teachers and students trapped in Xibao Primary School, the search and rescue team arrived by helicopter on the 6th with supplies and confirmed the physical conditions of the teachers and students. On their return trip, the team members brought back a pregnant teacher and sick student to the Jingying Hotel.
On the 5th, many Taiwanese media reported that the number of victims had risen to 12, but the Hualien County Government’s figure for that day was always 10 as announced on the evening of the 4th. On the same day, the search and rescue team found two missing people with no vital signs on the Shakadang Trail, but they were unable to remove them due to falling rocks. The two are father and daughter, and three of their family members are still missing near the trail. On the afternoon of the 6th, Hualien County determined the number of victims to be 13.
Su Yuming, head of the Kaohsiung City Special Search Team, told a reporter from China News Service at noon that the boulders pressing on the bodies of the father and daughter could only be destroyed through heavy machinery, but the current rock-breaking operation may cause another landslide. The remaining three missing persons in the family of five have not yet been found.
As the search and rescue team scrambled to clear the road from Tianxiang to Wuling in the west on the 5th, some trapped people who had the conditions to drive evacuated from Jingying Hotel. After a night of heavy rain, search and rescue teams inspected the emergency road section on the 6th, and more than 200 trapped people left on their own on the 6th.
Statistics released by the Hualien County Government on the same day changed the name of "stranded persons" to "detained persons." Currently, the number of people detained in the Taroko Mountains has dropped to 405, and 6 people are still missing. Jian Hongcheng, leader of the Hualien County Special Search Team, told a reporter from China News Service that most of the people still in Tianxiang went up the mountain from the eastern part of Taiwan, and they hoped to return via the eastern road. Based on this, these people are no longer “trapped.”
(Reporter Yang Chengchen produced by Liu Peng)
Editor in charge: [Cao Zijian]