On September 21, 1999 central Taiwan was struck by a devastating earthquake resulting in over 2400 deaths, thousands of collapsed and severely damaged buildings, and economic losses of over US$20 billion. This book describes the earthquake performance, emergency response, and recovery for the following lifeline systems: electric power, water, wastewater, communications, roads and bridges, railroads, ports, gas, and liquid fuels. In addition, the impact of lifeline disruption on emergency response capabilities of rescue activities is discussed. For each lifeline, damage, emergency response methods used to cope with damage and disruption, and the restoration and recovery processes are described. Each section summarizes the lessons learned, and makes recommendations to improve system earthquake response.
