Thousands of soldiers have been enlisted into the rescue effort, and parts of Taiwan on Wednesday resembled a war zone. Helicopters roared back and forth across the sky, bulldozers and other heavy machinery tore into pancaked apartment buildings and hotels, and thousands of people walked about in various degrees of shock and incredulity. Families and friends stood silently beside collapsed buildings, anxiously watching as rescue teams pulled aside massive slabs of concrete and twisted steel in search of their loved ones. Foreign rescue teams have been dispatched to Taiwan, bringing with them sensitive acoustic equipment and sniffer dogs. Many of these teams have become well-versed in earthquake search and rescue operations in recent months, thanks to a powerful earthquake on August 17 that killed at least 15,000 in Turkey and a strong earthquake in Athens, Greece, in September that killed more than 140 people.
Heavy machinery cuts away at a flattened building.
The search for survivors is expected to grow more frantic as time runs out on those buried beneath the rubble. The United States, Singapore, Japan, Turkey and Russia have sent rescue teams and other countries, including the Philippines, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Spain, South Korea, Israel and Thailand have offered assistance. Rescue and relief operations have been seriously hampered by Taiwan's shattered transportation and communication infrastructures. The earthquake and more than 2,000 aftershocks have crippled bridges and highways alike, knocked out electricity and phone service to more than six million people, and shattered water and sanitation systems. Travel has been described as nearly impossible in some regions, including the hardest hit counties, Nantou and Taichung.