Taiwan was hit with its strongest earthquake in 25 years on Wednesday (Apr 3). Singaporean actor Andie Chen, who’s based there, was home alone when the 7.4-magnitude quake struck.
Andie’s wife, Taiwanese actress Kate Pang, was on her way home after dropping their two children off at school.
“I received an alert on my phone saying that there’s an earthquake in Hualien. Before I could finish reading the message, the quake hit,” the 38-year-old actor told 8days over the phone.
“The house was shaking rather violently and I watched as everything fell off the shelves,” he said, recalling how he knelt at the archway between the living room and kitchen.
Andie, who has experienced minor quakes over the three years he has lived in Taiwan, explained: “What you’re supposed to do is to wait at a place where nothing’s going to fall on your head.
“I chose the archway between my living room and kitchen because the wall there is more solid. And if the house collapsed, I’d be near my kitchen where there’s food and water.”
Once the first quake was over, Andie grabbed his phone and wallet before heading downstairs to contact his wife and children.
While his children’s teacher confirmed the kids were fine and gathered at the field, he could not contact his wife as she had left her phone at home. So he went back to his home to wait for her.
He shared that it was only after he saw his neighbour looking pale that he realised how severe the earthquake was.
“You see, Singaporeans don’t know,” he chuckled. “It’s the same for me, I didn’t know how bad the situation was. In my mind, I thought, ‘Okay, just stay safe first’.”
“If even the Taiwanese are freaking out, you know this is not normal,” he said.
As for the damages to his home, he shared he had lost many crystals on his Asian Television Awards trophy, and that Kate’s Star Awards trophy was chipped. But the “most heartbreaking” damage was to his iMac as its screen was “completely smashed”.
Meanwhile, Mediacorp actress Yvonne Lim shared that she was about to take a nap after sending her kids off to school when the earthquake hit.
She told CNA’s Singapore Tonight on Wednesday (Apr 3): “I ran downstairs to my living room. I forgot my handphone. I just forgot everything. It was so shaky and you could even barely walk in (a) straight line. It was like a scene from the movies that we watch.”
And even though she lives in a new anti-earthquake building and the building remained strong following the tremors, Yvonne, who has lived in Taipei with her Taiwanese businessman husband and their two children for nine years, said her home still sustained some damage.
“Water was splashing out from the stove … And I have things falling down. Drawers were coming in and out, and the doors were also swaying. It was scary in the sense that you’re all alone and everything is just crashing down on you. But thankfully, we did not have any major damage,” she said.
