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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Amy Hawkins, Senior China correspondent and Chi Hui Lin in Miaoli

‘As well prepared as they could be’: how Taiwan kept death toll low in massive earthquake

People standing in the street looking at a building where the ground floor has collapsed and is leaning at an angle
A collapsed building in the city of Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan, where an earthquake with a 7.4 magnitude hit on Wednesday morning. Photograph: Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

For Nina Huang, it was the shaking that jolted her awake. “The first thing I did when I woke up was to hold the cupboard next to my daughter. I was afraid that it might fall down on her,” she recalled. Then her phone buzzed with a warning about a tsunami.

The biggest fear for Huang and her husband was that the bridge connecting their waterfront village of Yanliao to the city of Hualien would collapse, leaving them stranded.

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