Evacuees From New Taipei Building Collapse To Get Compensation

TaiwanPlus News

A construction firm is set to offer compensation to residents who lost their homes after a mishap in New Taipei on Monday. But the details are still uncertain, and over 100 lives are, for now, in limbo.

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00:00The bulk of the rubble is now cleared away two days after excavation work toppled this apartment building

00:06Somehow no one was injured despite the suddenness of the collapse, but the neighbors are still shaken up

00:24But over a hundred people are now evacuated many now without homes

00:28After structural engineers found it safe enough

00:31Residents were allowed to retrieve whatever they'd had to leave behind in the sudden rush to get out

00:43Though more details are likely to come

00:46Investigators say they have some idea of what went wrong here

00:49Already the construction firm and a contractor are each being fined around 3,000 US dollars

00:58The kind of water the don't shoot

01:00So it's a type of John's report and what is that toast?

01:03We're going to yo yo each time they got you know

01:06But Taiwan's been here before its construction industry has a spotty safety record overall

01:12And it's not even two years since the last time a similarly botched project toppled apartment blocks

01:18That incident in Taipei's Dodger area saw nearly 400 evacuated back in Sanchong

01:25Neighbors say this could just be a coincidence just bad luck in a place that's always had high water tables and unstable foundations

01:43But there's also skepticism about whether a $3,000 fine has the force needed to encourage construction firms to be careful

01:55The construction firm in charge of this site has offered apology money

02:046,000 US dollars for homeowners and around 1,000 for displaced renters

02:09Further compensation will come after negotiations, too

02:12For now though evacuees can only sit tight and wait to see what kind of offer they can get

02:18There's still a sense of disbelief about the sudden destruction on this ordinary Street

02:22But whether negligence or whether just bad luck are to blame not for the first time in recent years a construction mishap has turned lives

02:29upside down

02:31Klein Wong and John van Triest in New Taipei for Taiwan Plus

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