Derivative Effects of the 1999 Earthquake in Taiwan to U.S. Personal Computer Manufacturers

The September 21, 1999 earthquake in Chichi, Taiwan, rating 7.6 in the Richter scale, had devastating consequences. It left approximately 2,300 people dead, more than 10,000 injured, over 100,000 homeless, and about 120,000 unemployed. The government of Taiwan in its late October 1999 estimates expected the economic cost of the earthquake to be $9.2 billion, including the cost of reconstructing the close to 51,000 buildings destroyed and $1.2 billion in industrial production losses (Baum, 1999b).