'Bit of a shock': Saint Johner experiences Taiwan's earthquake ...

5 Apr 2024

CBC.ca

New Brunswick

On Wednesday, Albert was getting some early morning reading done in bed in his apartment in New Taipei City, Taiwan, when his world started shaking.

A rude awakening for English teacher Pierre Albert

Jordan Gill · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 05, 2024 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The quake, the strongest felt on Taiwan in 25 years, caused landslides, destroyed buildings and left at least 10 people dead. (Johnson Lai/The Associated Press)

It was not the kind of wake-up call Saint John's Pierre Albert had in mind.

On Wednesday, the elementary school English teacher was getting some early morning reading done in bed in his apartment in New Taipei City, Taiwan, when his world start to shake.

"Not having grown up around anywhere … where there is anything like an earthquake, bit of a shock for sure," said Albert.

What Albert was feeling was the 7.2-magnitude earthquake which shook the island.

Pierre Albert says he's experienced earthquakes in Taiwan before, but nothing like this. (Submitted by Pierre Albert)

The quake, the strongest felt on the island in 25 years, caused landslides, destroyed buildings and, as of Thursday, left 10 people dead and more than a thousand people injured.

Albert says the area gets plenty of earthquakes, but this one was different.

"The earthquakes that I've felt before in my few months here were so mild that I thought maybe someone upstairs in my apartment building was doing laundry," said Albert.

New Taipei City, where Albert lives, was relatively untouched, he says. Other areas of the island weren't as lucky. (Submitted by Pierre Albert)

"This one actually had the building properly shaking like a swing, back and forth. So a pretty big shift."

Albert said his side of the island was relatively unharmed. Unlike the east side, where the bulk of the damage occurred, he said the major damage in New Taipei City happened to a metro line, and the local people have been relatively calm.

"They've gotten, like, a mentality of being ready and expecting these types of things to happen," said Albert.

"Seeing a foreigner like me be a bit shocked by the whole event … they've really enjoyed that."

Albert's students show him what to do during an earthquake drill. (Submitted by Pierre Albert)

Albert said his students experienced the whole thing as an adventure and were surprised to learn his home country doesn't have serious earthquakes.

"They were quite surprised that it's not the norm for everyone else in the world and that this is a shocking thing," he said.

"I told them people from back home were reaching out asking if I was OK," but for Albert's students, it was "just an interesting day where they had to run out of their morning class."

The brush with an earthquake hasn't put Albert off from living and working in Taiwan … at least not yet.

"Maybe if it were to happen another time I'd rethink living here long-term," he said.