TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Charity Foundation and Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation received 600 requests to repair homes damaged by last month’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Hualien County, reports said Thursday (May 2).

The April 3 quake killed 18 people, with two still missing, and injured more than 1,000. Several tall buildings in the eastern coastal region partially collapsed during the quake and its aftershocks and had to be torn down.

The teams from Tzu Chi and TSMC charity foundations were concentrating on helping repair homes that had been damaged but did not have to be razed, per CNA. Of the 600 applications, work had been completed on 185 homes.

TSMC Charity Foundation said it set up an office in Hualien City on April 11 to accept requests for repairs. Priority went to low-income residents, the elderly, women and children, and marginalized groups.

The cases they worked on ranged from replacing tiles that had fallen off outside walls to filling up serious cracks inside the homes. A shortage of rooftop water tanks led them to take 20 to 30 of the cisterns to Hualien County. 

TSMC Charity Foundation said that with the assistance of four companies, it had completed repair work on 73 homes in Hualien City and townships of Shoufeng, Fenglin, and Yuli.

Tzu Chi mobilized 200 volunteers to help in Ji’an, Xiulin, and Xincheng townships. Since April 19, the teams fixed 112 homes out of 319.

Separately, the central government said Thursday it was planning to spend NT$28.55 billion (US$878.59 million) on the reconstruction of the region, per Radio Taiwan International (RTI). The budget covered the repair and reconstruction of damaged government and private buildings and structures, as well as the cost of a promotional campaign to help local industries back on their feet.