This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.
Every once in a while, a potentially catastrophic event ends up being more dire than expected. The April 2024 Taiwan earthquake took 16 lives and caused significant damage, but it could have been much worse. Compared to a similar magnitude 7.4 earthquake, this one caused significantly fewer deaths and was much less destructive.
For example, the 2010 Haiti earthquake was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. It is estimated that more than 220,000 people were killed, over 300,000 were injured, and 1.3 million were displaced.When one puts this devastation into perspective and compares it with the damage caused by the more powerful earthquake in Taiwan, the damage seems relatively minor.
Most reports say that this is down to the earthquake-proofing measures Taiwan took after its last major quake in 1999, plus a bit of luck. 921 EarthquakeThe quake, known as this one because it occurred on September 21, 1999, killed about 2,400 people, injured 10,000, and left 100,000 homeless. In contrast, the quake that occurred on April 3, 2024 It took the lives of just 13 people. (Or, as some say, 16 years old.) and property damage estimates are even higher. This was revised down from the original estimate. It went from $5 billion to $8 billion to just $500 million to $1 billion.
“Taiwan’s decades of experience building earthquake resilience into its regulations, structures and society have protected some 24 million residents from the impacts of the worst disasters.”
Source: https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/taiwans-earthquake-resilience-lessons-for-a-cross-strait-conflict
Taiwan 921 earthquake
To understand the current situation, we need to look back to Taiwan’s last devastating earthquake in 1999. Unlike today, Taiwan’s disaster preparedness and response were woefully inadequate, a fact that is often used to explain the massive property damage and death toll.
Why was the 1999 Taiwan earthquake so devastating?
According to an article in the Journal of Acute Medicine: “Review of disaster response 20 years after the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake” Taiwan had no disaster medical assistance teams, urban search and rescue teams, or incident command systems. Without these public resources, the government response to the earthquake was disorganized and sporadic.
It wasn’t just the lack of critical personnel and procedures that caused the 1999 Taiwan earthquake to cause so much death and destruction — the small island nation’s building codes and structural regulations were not designed to ensure that buildings could withstand an earthquake of this magnitude.
How the 1999 Taiwan earthquake prompted change
The 1999 earthquake served as a wake-up call for Taiwanese government officials: seeing how inadequate, insufficient, and inadequate the disaster response was, the Taiwanese government began taking steps to prevent the recurrence of the same disaster in the future.
These steps include:
- Establishment of the nation’s first Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team
- Establishment of Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT)
- Regional Emergency Medical Centers (REMOCS) opened in six locations nationwide
- Creating a government organization to coordinate disaster response
- Revise building codes to require more durable buildings, including taking into account a location’s seismic activity when determining the level of safety requirements.
- always Addition and evolution of building standards To continually improve safety standards
- Renovating an old building to meet modern requirements
- Ongoing training and drills for both emergency personnel and the public
- create Penalty system for construction companies Does not meet the nation’s strict earthquake resistance standards
Taiwan hopes that with these new developments and others, it will be better prepared for the next big earthquake.
“September 21st has been designated as disaster prevention drill day across Taiwan, when mock warning messages about earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters are sent to citizens’ mobile phones and evacuation drills are conducted in schools across the island.”
Fortunately, all the efforts and investment of time and money paid off when in April 2024 the country was hit by its worst earthquake since 1999.
It is important to note that Taiwan’s earthquake resilience efforts were not a “one-off.” As with any successful public health or safety effort, true success comes from continuing to improve and learning lessons from less-than-ideal outcomes. In Taiwan’s case, this includes not only the 1999 earthquake, but subsequent earthquakes as well. The incident left seven people dead in 2018 and prompted the government to further improve the process.
Prevention and preparation prove effective
On the morning of April 3, 2024, Taiwan was hit by another major earthquake. This time, the quake measured 7.4 on the Richter scale and occurred about 18 kilometers away from Hualien City on the east coast of the island. However, unlike in 1999, Taiwan is now known as a country that is resilient to earthquakes. One of the most earthquake-prone places in the worldThere is a level of readiness that is not normally seen.
Experts around the world have praised Taiwan for the improvements it has made over the past 25 years, and these were on full display during the recent earthquake: although some buildings were still damaged and lives were lost, human casualties and property damage were far less than anyone had expected for an earthquake of this magnitude.
Insurance losses have also proven to be lower than expected. Shortly after the earthquake, CoreLogic Inc., a data and analytics company that forecasts insurance and reinsurance losses, estimated that Taiwan’s insurance losses would be between $5 billion and $8 billion. Just a week later, CoreLogic has revised their estimates (downward!) Losses are expected to be around $500 million to $1 billion.
Perhaps most impressive was the speed with which Taiwan’s government and communities returned to business as usual, just days after what could have been a catastrophe that would have shut down the country for weeks or even months. CNN reported that stores and restaurants were open. And served the customer as if nothing had happened.
Prevention is the key to reducing risk
We’ve been saying this for a while now. Prevention is the new solutionNo one understands this concept better than those in the insurance industry, who see losses mount year after year and the payouts get paid out. Preventive and risk minimization efforts It’s one of the best ways to reduce losses (before they occur).
While no one can eliminate all risk 100%, there are many things that insurers, governments, and even consumers can do to improve the chances of surviving a disaster with minimal damage.
Taiwan’s success shows the effectiveness of a combined bottom-up and top-down approach to disaster prevention and mitigation. From the top, the government created and enforced strict new building requirements, including retrofitting old buildings to meet new standards. From below, public education campaigns taught residents how to respond in the event of an earthquake, where to evacuate, and what to do and not do. These combined methods worked well when the largest earthquake since 1999 struck Taiwan, resulting in efficient, coordinated, and minimal damage rather than chaos and massive destruction.
While insurance compliance is not a life-or-death situation like an earthquake, there can be serious consequences for those who don’t prioritize compliance – in fact, it can even be detrimental to your business. Make it a priority But growth and efficiency come at a cost.
Looking for a solution that will save you money, reduce risk and provide an unparalleled experience for your employees and producers? See how AgentSync can help you.
