Nine people and injured more than 1000 others. But first, we want to start with breaking news. Abc7 news insider phil matier confirms aaron peskin plans to run for mayor of San Francisco. He is the current president for the citys board of supervisors, but peskin is expected to announce his Mayoral Campaign at an event on saturday. Hes speaking with abc seven News Reporter liam melendez right now, and you can see her interview with peskin and get analysis from phil matier coming up at four. All right. Now getting answers in our segments. Im kristen sze, thanks for joining us at this hour in taiwan, rescuers are frantically sifting through the rubble after that devastating earthquake. This video was taken at the site of a collapsed building in hualien, which was hardest hit. Crews just hoping for any sign of somebody still alive. Joining us live now are jeff tang, a San Mateo County resident whos on vacation in taiwan with his family, and doctor lucy jones, founder and chief scientist of the doctor Lucy Jones Center for science and society. And we should say earthquake science educator extraordinaire. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff, im going to start with you because youre there. Glad youre okay in taipei, being from the bay area, youve certainly experienced earthquakes before. I think loma prieta as well. So how would you describe this one . How was this one for you, it started with a big jolt. It was rolling. I had me, my two boys in the room where were up here on the 15th floor, over in bargetto and, it just its one of those things where youre in the moment. It just kept going, and it was just swaying back and forth for what seemed like forever. We have a lot of video of that. Perhaps we can show some of that. Just crazy amounts of shaking, in some of those buildings. And jeff, while we show that i want to ask you, i mean, look at that. Thats an Apartment Building in taipei. Look at the chandeliers, for the most part, despite how scary it looked, taipei is fine, but the real destruction is in hualien, which is about 100 miles away. And you were actually just there with your family a couple of days ago, right . Tell us about that area. Thats right, its absolutely a beautiful area of taiwan. And we were touring two days ago, on the coast of that, that east coast and, looking at all the scenery. And there is literally that one road that goes from taipei, all the way down to hualien, which takes over a couple hours, to get through. And the scenery is just one of a kind. I mean, you you dont really see that, in the bay area, so it was worth the visit. And you know, it just sorry. With whats going on right now, i hear the roads are closed now, same roads we traveled. Look, im so glad your family had a good time there. And youre all safe, but lets go ahead and show some of the damage in that area in hualien, there is obviously that apartment complex, that building that collapsed partially, heres some video of, you know, just the freeway. Look at the condition and the shaking. And, of course, that tunnel. I believe you drove on that road in front of that tunnel that had the road collapse and just landslides everywhere. I dont know if you i mean, obviously you didnt see any of that, which is great. But thats a mountainous region, isnt it . And once its kind of cut off like that, is there even another way to get to and from very easily . Jeff, i think the inland, which probably adds another four hours, but definitely traveling in that road, youve got these gigantic mountains on one side and then the beautiful sea on the other side. So, a lot of those images do look familiar. It reminds me a little bit of pch, you know, along highway one and a little bit like hawaii. Just the cliffs, the mountains. Gorgeous, but hard to get around. Jeff, im just glad you and your family are fine. Please do enjoy the rest of the vacation. I hope it is quiet. Thank you. All right. I want to bring in doctor lucy jones to talk about this because taiwan obviously gets a lot of sizable earthquakes. We report on that. Right. Is that because its on the ring of fire . Can you explain that to our viewers as well . Lets think of it in plate tectonic terms. More modern terms. And is at the intersection of a couple of different plates, got the philippine plate. Uve got the european plate. Ihink theres something called the sunda plate in there. And they come together at taiwan. So its sort of at a cornerhat makes for extra stress. And overall, you get about ten times as many earthquakes taiwan as we do in california. Wa. Okay, look, i want to talk about the damage. Some of the collapsed buildings, roads, landslides. Could we see that here in the bay area if we were to get a 7. 5 and then also just educate us on what, seven point. 7. 4. What that really means . Okay. Yes. Its very hard for us to, extrapolate in our minds what an exponential growth is. So a 7. 4 is ten times or 32 times the energy of a 6. 4. You compare it to the 6. 9 loma prieta earthquake, and its about a factor of, 8 to 10 more than than you had total energy released. But that doesnt tell you what happens to you, right . What happens to you is how much energy is released in the magnitude, how far away you are from it. So that that geoffrey sitting there in tie bay, is actually 90 miles away from the earthquake epicenter. And therefore its not surprising that even though they felt it strongly, there really wasnt any damage. Whereas in hualien, the, you know, the level of shaking was much, much higher because it dies off with distance very quickly. And then in addition, you need to look at what soil conditions do to you. So remember what happened in the Marina District where we got 100 times more shaking than just very nearby because of the extremely loose soils that did actually amplify the shaking a bit. In taipei, taibei is a basin and you can see if you look at the did you feel it reports that they even though taichung is just as close as taipei at taipei had had stronger shaking. So can i just ask you i mean, this maybe it gets into the kind of seismic construction and safety more, but when you look at those buildings, theyre right. Obviously you have taipei 101, which is like this massive tall, gigantic, one of the tallest buildings in the world. And that was totally fine. And but then you have some of these what looks to be older buildings to me, that just kind of collapse. Can you talk about, you know, for places like that, what they really need and maybe some lessons for us. Okay. Well, number one taipei 101 is in taipei and therefore was 90 miles away and didnt get a strong shaking. Its also really inventive engineering with a huge mass and suspended in the building to help absorb some of the earthquake stresses the buildings were seeing collapsed are all in hualien, so its being nearby now. We have an earthquake on the hayward fault. Theyre going to be plenty of people just as close to the hayward fault as as hualien was to this earthquake. So we should see high level damage. But for instance, the that tilted building that were seeing, thats almost certainly a soft first story building. You notice that its the type of construction where there will be just columns on the first floor, open up to retail. That means the first floor is weaker than the upper floors. And that concentrates the stress into that area. So San Francisco has had mandatory retrofit of softer story, as i believe has oakland. But a lot of other cities in the bay area, havent about a half a dozen. And south in Southern California have taken this on. And this is why its so important. Those are just the buildings that are most at risk. Is that the big lesson to us . Like for any buildings that havent been retrofitted, that you still have that when you say soft story, kind of like almost like an empty spot where its not very, you know, theres nothing to really support it. Its like sometimes the garage. Exactly. Thats the problem. You look at those buildings, you see the ones that are tilted over. Yeah. Part of the first floor has failed, but the rest of the building has stayed intact. So in fact, the building is pretty strong. But it just lost it there in the first floor. And its why that first floor stuff is just so incredibly important. But its not the only problem. Concrete buildings, i mean, most of the retrofit programs in california have been around the wood frame residential construction. These type of concrete buildings, in many cases, we havent dealt with them, San Francisco. No, i dont think any bay area has required retrofit of concrete buildings. Los angeles did and santa monica, and because theyre heavier, they are potentially deadlier. So i think the big lesson out of here should be engineering is great, but we need to retrofit our older buildings and we need to have a sufficient standard. You know, in california, we say as long as the building doesnt kill you, were great. We do not require our building to be undamaged. Its solely a life safety code. And many engineers and ive been working with them, are trying to move our Building Code towards a functional recovery standard where we can recover the function of the building. It adds about 1 to the cost of construction. Only 1, and saves a lot of money in the long run. But we havent been willing to do it so far. That feels worth it to me. Doctor jones, before we let you go real quickly, you talked about what governments can do, maybe what we can do in terms of policy and construction, but what can we do to prepare as individuals, as individuals, of course, you want to be sure, make your own house as safe as it can be. If its not a modern construction, it can probably be improved. Make sure you have water supplies. Thats the most vulnerable part of our infrastructure here in california, because water is a problem here already, and then the other one, id really say is talk with your friends and families and neighbors, because because, you know, its communities that can Work Together that can recover. And here in california, americans tend to have trouble with, communal action. Were very individualistic, but thats not going to get us through the earthquake. All right. Message noted. Doctor lucy jones at the doctor Lucy Jones Center for science and society. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for having me. Stay with abc seven news for updates on the earthquake in taiwan. You can get breaking news alerts as they happen by downloading the abc seven news app. Right now is a great opportunity to check in on your own earthquake plan. We have what you need to know to get a kit, make a plan and be informed. Check out abc seven news. Com slash. Prepare norcal aid for taiwan, ukraine and allies are still in limbo as Congress Takes a two week break, but recess for the lawmakers means time to hear constituents concerns. Your chance to talk to Contra Costa County on thursday in lafayette. And joining us live now is east bay congressman Mark Desaulnier. Thanks for coming in. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so much to talk about. I want to start with taiwan before we get to your town hall. Right. The earthquake is getting all the attention right now. But also this week, chinese warplanes and also vessels have been uh incursions or having incursions into the airspace and the waters. So i want to ask you, how concerned are you about the situation . And, you know, what should the us do . Well all very concerned about the ongoing relationship with mainland china. In the conversation in the last few days between the president and the chinese leader was better tone. We need to live and Work Together, but that part of the world is very dangerous, and its been provocative for too long. This is true. So what do you think the us should do . What action could we take . And also, i know on the table to is also to get security aid finalized for taiwan and ukraine. Right. And other allies know we need to get them that money. Its our best interests and our best interest. Both for our National Security but also our moral authority in the world to support these democracies that are under threat. And we have to have an honest conversation with the mainland chinese, Chinese Government that although we may be competitive economically and more and more militarily, that we want peace and we want prosperity for them as well as the people in taiwan and america. Do you feel like our moral authority has been eroding . Oh, yeah. Yes, definitely. I mean, i our last few president ial elections or our last president ial election, im a democrat. When we last had a republican, i think theres a lot of research that shows that that brought our moral authority down because of his actions. Yeah. Well, all right, i want to turn things local. You are having a town hall. Uh is this town hall for particular issue, or is it come with any of your concerns and questions about whatever . Its the latter. Okay. So we do both. We do specific. I just did one recently in martinez about our issues around refinery safety. This one will be just general okay. I understand that your district is obviously home to several key bridges, right. And bridges are top of mind for people after what happened in baltimore as that container ship carrying so much, you know, rammed into the bridge and now thats down, what do you think needs to happen in terms of securing our infrastructure and bridges . Well, california has five of the ten busiest bridges in the united states. Weve got one, two, four of them, the second busiest is the bay bridge in the country, after the George Washington bridge. So theyre important to us. Weve always tried to be at the forefront in california of making sure they were structurally sound. In addition, because weve got seismic issues that are front of mind after what just happened in taiwan. So we have to continue to protect them and the private sector. The pressure to make money, to move product is a challenge. And weve got a busy port in the bay area as well. So all of those things, i think weve done a good job. Were more stringent than maryland, but we have to stay on it real quickly. I know the town hall was originally more specific towards womens issues, what particularly concerns you or that you hope to hear about from your constituents on that . I do a lot of town halls. Ive done more town halls than any other member of congress in the last ten years. So i like to hear, what is important to them. And for them to be get the message that this is a complex world with lots of challenges. Well, there are a lot of ways that many women feel attacked right now, in this country. But i want to also turn things back to when you go back to congress after your i dont want to say its not. Its a working vacation. Not a vacation. Its just recess. Look, you were talking about Speaker Mike Johnson facing a motion to be vacated by fellow republican Marjorie Taylor greene. Hes in that position since only october , and that only after huge infighting that, you know, brought things to a standstill. So im wondering if you think that could happen again and how horrible or what the consequences might be if it were to happen again. I hope it doesnt. Ive sat through those 15 rounds when they replaced, speaker mccarthy, i would hope that they would be more collaborative amongst their own caucus, but also with us. Weve got work to do, and we have different perspectives all right. Well, well see if that happens. Meantime, youre up for reelection in november. You, of course, won your primary easily in in march despite all that. What were just talking about the dysfunction, the vitriol. A lot of times, what keeps you wanting to do this job and stay in congress to fight the good fight . Because many of your colleagues who have been around for a while are retiring. Yeah, yeah, i its you know, it sounds trite, but its a great honor. I walk around that building and think of its history of lincoln and, its an amazing honor to be part of it. And i love the district, so i keep doing it because i get more than i give, and i think i give a lot. I like that you get more than you give. Okay, i guess before i hope youre getting birthday presents, because i do hear it is. Is this your birthday . Did you come . Already happened. At my age, we dont celebrate birthdays anymore. Other than were still here. Oh, yeah. I totally understand what youre talking about, but. All right, well, happy belated birthday or early birthday, whatever it is, i know you got a lot going on, and you have the town hall coming up, so wish you luck. And, folks, i want to give you the information on that. If youre interested in attending this weeks town hall with congressman Mark Desaulnier tomorrow night, 630 at the lafayette Veterans Memorial center, youll share updates on Congress Government funding and take your questions. Thank you so much, congressman dosanjh. Always. All right. Okay. Well, shes the ubiquitous San Francisco giants reporter, Childrens Book author, and now podcaster to help women launch their careers. Is there anything amy g. Cant do . Shes here to are in one place. Lets take a rollcall. Kim, khloe, kourtney, kris, kendall, and kylie . So here. Present. Where are we . Calabasas . Were on hulu. Were on hulu on disney . Hulu on disney . Available with disney bundle. The giants own host and ambassador amy gutierrez, aka amy g, has released a new Childrens Book, smarty. Marty takes the field as amys fourth book starring the lovable character. And amy is here now with us in the studio. Congrats relations. Thank you so much. Look at this. Thanks for coming in, by the way. I know youre super. Thanks for having me. This is so cute, okay, so who is smarty marty . Smarty marty is probably everything. I wish i was right. Yeah. Shes. Shes a little bit of me. Some of it. Shes a little bit of my mom. A little bit of my grandmother, who shes named after. My grandmothers name was martha. And the biggest baseball fan on the planet, unfortunately, a dodgers fan. But oh, but shes gone, so we cant. We cannot. You know. Totally. Yeah. We have to just appreciate it. Totally. But i love how you know, she knows everything there. She knows about baseball more so than the bo