Chi – Chi Earthquake – Taiwan

Today we visited one of the sites from the 1999 earthquake that hit central Taiwan called The Chi-Chi earthquake.

The following photos are from our visit to the 921 Earthquake Museum where a primary school was destroyed and many children killed, the school has been left as it was since the 1999 disaster and is open to the public in order to remind them to pay attention to earthquake prevention and disaster relief measures. You can still see the children’s books scattered on the school desks from that dreadful day.

They also use the site to train the Taiwan Search and Rescue dogs.

Some of the photos were taken on the day of the earthquake from the surrounding areas and are on display in the museum, the rest are from how the school looks today.

At 1:47 in the morning of September 21, 1999, a strong earthquake of 7.3 ML or 7.7 Mw occurred in the central part of Taiwan (Jiji, Nantou County) causing casualties and property losses as one of the biggest earthquake disasters in Taiwan in the past 100 years.
2,415 people were killed, 11,305 injured, 29 unfound, and NT$300 billion worth of damage was done.