Two villages built by Buddhist Tsuchi Foundation were inaugurated. Tsuchi Foundation’s founder Dharma Master Cheng Yen gave out relief supplies to representative of 921 Earthquake victims.（Oct 31, 1999 CNA）
|
"Prior to the earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999, Taiwan didn't have a
qualified rescue team. After the disaster, Taiwan began helping other
countries with rescue operations, " said Hsiung Kuang-hua, chief of
Taipei City's Fire Department.
Citing the Taipei City Urban Search and Rescue Team as an
example, he said the team has gone on overseas missions many times in
the last decade.
Hsiung was serving as chairman of the Fire Science Department at
Central Police University in Guishan, Taoyuan County when the 921
quake took place and was instructed by the Executive Yuan to ask
rescue teams in the United States to help with rescue operations in
the disaster areas.
|
|
|
Twenty-seven foreign rescue teams from a dozen countries came to
Taiwan's aid and competed against one another to be the one to save
the most people, Hsiung recalled.
Among them, Hsiung was most impressed by the two rescue teams
from the United Sates, which boasted state-of-the-art equipment and
were well- organized.
"They flew in the day after the earthquake aboard a C-5B freight
carrier and touched down at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport
after the air force was hesitant about giving them access to the
Chingchuankang air force base in Taichung, which was the nearest
airport to the hardest-hit area," he noted.
"As soon as the plane had come to a halt on the tarmac, the two
rescue teams emerged from the belly compartment in their trucks. All
their leaders asked was: 'Where should we start? And with whom should
we be in contact?'" said Hsiung.
The two teams asked for no support whatsoever from the Taiwanese
authorities because they had brought with them everything they
needed, from medicine, food, satellite communication equipment to
long-wave locators.
|
|
Hsiung pointed out that the job of rescue teams is to rescue
people trapped under debris, not to unearth bodies. Unfortunately,
though, he went on, one American rescue team was surrounded by a mob
of distraught people led by an elected local official in Douliu,
Yunlin County, who, unaware of the purpose of the rescue team,
demanded that they dig out bodies before leaving a collapsed building
there to carry on the more important task of locating other trapped
people elsewhere.
One year after that earthquake, the Taipei City Fire
Department set up a rescue team later that month, using the city's
budget and funds donated by people for the quake relief operation.
The team, patterned on the structure of the rescue teams under the
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, has 56 firefighters, four
ER doctors and four structural engineers.
That team has since expanded to 123 members and has taken part in
rescue operations in El Salvador when it was rattled by a earthquake
in 2001, in Iran when its historic city of Bam was leveled by an
earthquake in 2003, Java in 2004 in the wake of a tsunami there, and
Wenchuan, western China in 2008, also in the wake of a devastating
earthquake.
The city's rescue team has also participated in many disaster
rescue operations at home and is now considered one of the country's
most experienced rescue teams.
|
Volunteer helped to deliver supplies in Guoshing, Nantou after the 921 Earthquake. （Sep 24, 1999 CNA）
|
|
|
Hsiung was quick to stress, however, that "there is no place for
complacency and there is also room for our team to improve its skills
and training to prepare for future demanding challenges."
|
|
