DEADLY QUAKE ROCKS TAIWAN; OFFICIALS SAY 7.6 TEMBLOR TOOK LIVES OF HUNDREDS.

Byline: William Foreman Associated Press 

Taiwan's strongest quake in decades jolted the island today, killing at least 656 people, wrecking a 12-story hotel in Taipei and destroying more than 1,000 homes islandwide, the government said. Nearly 3,000 people were injured.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 and was centered 90 miles south-southwest of Taipei, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said. It also issued warnings of possible tsunamis - huge waves that sometimes follow earthquakes.

The temblor was about the same strength as the devastating one that struck Turkey on Aug. 17, killing more than 15,000 people.

Most of the victims were found in Taichung and nearby Nantou, located near the epicenter. The foundations of some multistory apartment blocks in the cities crumpled into piles of concrete boulders, sending the structures crashing into neighboring buildings. Soldiers raced out of buildings with bloodied victims moaning in pain on stretchers.

Several roads were buckled and traffic was disrupted, isolating many remote towns.

Hospitals in towns and cities in central Taiwan were packed with injured people, and television stations urged doctors, nurses and others with medical training to join in the rescue work.

The Interior Ministry's disaster management center reported that 656 people were killed and some 3,000 injured. About 1,245 people were trapped and more than 1,000 homes destroyed, the center said.

One distraught woman told local television her parents were trapped in a Taichung apartment building. ``I don't know what happened to my dad and mom,'' the sobbing survivor said. ``We live in different rooms. I haven't seen them.''

In Taichung, water poured from ruptured mains and distraught residents squatted with their heads in their hands as rescuers helped apparently unhurt survivors from the buildings.

President Lee Teng-hui flew by helicopter to Taichung to direct rescue work while Vice President Lien Chan went to Nantou.

In Taipei, the island nation's capital, the quake wrecked the 78-room Sungshan Hotel, collapsing the bottom stories and setting the badly damaged top listing to one side. But the capital city of 2.7 million people was spared much of the damage.

Fire crews turned hoses on the wreckage as smoke poured from fires raging in several destroyed rooms. About 100 people were rescued and 80 were trapped inside the concrete structure, which also housed a bank and several apartments, officials said.

A woman pulled from the wreckage urged rescuers to look for more injured.

``Hurry, go rescue people. They're in there. They're inside,'' said the unidentified woman, who was dressed in street clothes and did not appear to be injured. ``I lived on the ninth floor, but now it's the fourth floor.''

Dirk Kempthorne, the governor of Idaho who is visiting Taipei on an Asian trade mission, said he was sleeping in a top-floor room in the 25-story Grant Hyatt Regency in Taipei when the earthquake hit.

``We've been through quite an experience,'' Kempthorne said by telephone from the street outside the hotel. ``I think many of us thought we might be done for.''

Kempthorne said the quake began as a gentle swaying, ``and then it increased in intensity until you were virtually thrown from the bed.''

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and other members of a trade delegation were also in Taiwan and were not hurt, the Governor's Office said Monday.

Meanwhile, 50 people were reported injured when a 12-story apartment building collapsed in the Taipei suburb of Hsinchuang. An estimated 100 others were still trapped within the building, which collapsed onto a neighboring five-story structure.

In Washington, President Clinton said he and Hillary Rodham Clinton were ``saddened'' by news of the quake. ``We are in touch directly with the Taiwan authorities to determine what assistance from tPhe United States may be needed,'' he said.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin extended condolences and offered aid to the quake victims, even though the disaster occurred at a time of tense relations between China and Taiwan.

The quake ``hurt the hearts of people on the mainland as the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as flesh and blood,'' China's state-run Xinhua News agency said in a paraphrase of Jiang's remarks. He offered assistance ``to alleviate the quake-caused losses.''

China's Red Cross announced it would provide $10,000 in disaster aid and $6,000 worth of relief supplies to earthquake victims.

Today's quake was Taiwan's worst since a 7.4-magnitude one hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is jolted by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and rarely cause damage.

The latest quake struck about 1:45 a.m., while most of Taiwan's 22 million people were sleeping. It knocked out electric service throughout the northern part of the island. State radio said the initial quake was followed by six aftershocks.

After the temblor, people made their way into the streets from damaged buildings, some wearing only underwear, some in nightclothes. Some appeared dazed, but others quickly recovered from the sudden awakening. A few waved from damaged buildings.

HOW TO HELP

For information about the earthquake in Taipei or help with contacting relatives there, call the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, [phone], preferably between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

To make a financial contribution to relief efforts, contact the American Red Cross at (800) HELPNOW, and ask to contribute to the International Response Fund for its efforts in Taiwan.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo: (color) An early-morning earthquake struck 90 miles southwest of Taipei, toppling buildings in Taiwan's capital.

Wally Santana/Association Press

Box: How to help (see text)