Chicago students in Taiwan during 7.4-magnitude earthquake: 'We'll be happy to have them home'

Ryan Bergin was watching TV on Wednesday night when his phone pinged with a text from his daughter, Leona, saying she had been in an earthquake while studying in Taiwan.

“It was surreal at first,” Bergin said. “I almost thought she wasn’t talking about an actual earthquake. We were, of course, very scared.”

Leona was one of 20 high school students from St. Ignatius College Prep on the Near West Side staying in Taiwan for 10 days when a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck, the strongest seen in Taiwan in 25 years. Authorities said nine people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in the quake.

Although the quake struck the island’s eastern region near the city of Hualien, where the students and staff were staying, the group was uninjured.

When the quake hit, the group was eating breakfast in their hotel — which was next door to a building that was severely damaged, leaning at an angle and photographed in several news publications.

Leona told her dad plates were breaking and tables were shaking during the quake.

The earthquake hit during the only day the group was scheduled to stay in the city.

Another Chicago-area native also got rattled by the quake.

Deerfield’s Charlotte Thompson was asleep in her hotel room in Taipei when she was startled awake

"[I] woke up to the entire room rocking like a boat,” Thompson told CBS2.

“Other people started coming into the hallway, and I was yelling, ‘Stay in the doorway!’ as the building was shaking,” she said. She said the building was rocking “profusely.”

-, Getty

Thompson, like the students, was uninjured.

Bergin said the students are doing OK.

“The group seems to be in great spirits,” said Bergin, who’s also the school’s director of publications.

Kristyn Hartman, the school’s communications director, added: “We feel so grateful that everybody’s OK physically, and we pray for people that are facing such challenges and grief.”

They’re scheduled to come back to Chicago on Saturday.

“We’ll be happy to have them home,” Hartman said. “The students always get a warm welcome, but this will be just a little bit warmer.”

The group is traveling to safer ground in the western part of the country, and the Rev. Aaron Bohr has been updating families with students on the trip.

“Our Taiwanese hosts have been so gracious and conscientious,” he wrote. “We are in good hands. The students have been very resilient and brave. We have become a strong little community in these days.”

Dennis Lei, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago, said he reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan after the earthquake and says the government responded quickly in gathering resources to deal with the aftermath.

“Our government has responded very effectively and has demonstrated strong resiliency in dealing with the earthquake,” Lei said. “So far we have enough resources to involve in rescue efforts.”

The Ministry of Health and Welfare created a donation fund to provide financial support to the victims of the earthquake. Lei said the funds will give victims immediate assistance.

“I want to express my thank you to our friends in the United States and all over the world for your support — your messages mean a lot,” Lei said.