Crews Toil Amid Rubble in Taiwan as Death Toll Mounts, Hopes Fade : Asia: More than 2,300 are feared trapped under or inside buildings flattened in the temblor. The number of confirmed dead surpasses 2,000.

As the death tally continued to climb, international rescue crews in Taiwan worked round the clock into this morning amid fading hopes of finding many more survivors of the powerful earthquake that struck the island early Tuesday.

More than 2,300 people were still feared trapped under or inside buildings that were flattened or toppled in the magnitude 7.6 temblor. The number of confirmed dead rose to 2,047, with 6,539 injured.

Workers, soldiers and residents used cranes, pickaxes and their bare hands to chip away at the debris left in heaps where residential blocks once stood. Despite the assistance of sniffer dogs and relief teams from across the globe, workers were slowed by fears of wrongly shifting the rubble and endangering anyone who might still be alive within.

In front of one collapsed building, a woman surnamed Chen choked with tears as she awaited word about a relative.

“They’ve dug out her shoes and her purse,” the woman told Taiwanese television. “Why can’t they find her?”

Emergency crews from Virginia and Florida on Wednesday rescued a man who lay trapped but conscious inside a caved-in apartment building in the town of Touliu, about 110 miles southwest of here.

“He was pretty glad to see us,” said Capt. Michael Reilly, a member of the team, which brought four dogs to aid in the search.

Rescue efforts were further complicated by powerful aftershocks and ruined infrastructure--roads, bridges and telecommunications--that made it difficult to reach some of the hardest-hit areas near the epicenter in central Taiwan, 90 miles south of this capital. Electricity and water remained unavailable or intermittent in the region.

State radio reported that cracks had been detected in one of the walls of Taiwan’s biggest sources of water, the Sun Moon Lake Reservoir, near the epicenter in Nantou County. The broadcast warned residents downstream to evacuate.

On Wednesday morning, seismologists recorded numerous aftershocks, including two that measured 6.8 and 6.3. The tremors weakened already vulnerable buildings and sent residents scurrying into the streets.

The original quake, which struck at 1:47 a.m. Tuesday, came as Taiwan had begun looking forward to two occasions for national celebration, the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday and National Day on Oct. 10.

Instead, a somber mood has overtaken the island as the magnitude of the tragedy has unfolded. The Taiwanese government on Wednesday canceled festivities scheduled to mark National Day.

Rescue crews able to get into the most heavily affected areas described wide swaths of destruction in the devastated villages and towns around Nantou County. Some areas were turned into plains of twisted metal and crumbled concrete. Corpses were laid out in rows, too many to count and beginning to decompose in the late-summer heat.

Yet witnesses also reported stories of courage and grim determination, such as the perseverance of Lin Chin-chai, who trudged on foot for five hours from his home in the ravaged town of Puli, about 90 miles south of Taipei, to make his way to a hospital.

“I had to walk, and I felt I couldn’t make it,” the 48-year-old told Reuters news service. He finally found help.

The large number of injured and the damage to facilities have strained Taiwan’s medical services, forcing many doctors and nurses to work in makeshift hospitals.

Medical personnel have been performing triage in field centers set up in tents and parking lots. Refrigeration units to store corpses have been hard to come by. Supplies have been dropped by helicopter to the more inaccessible areas.

Residents throughout the island have pulled together in an impressive communal effort to collect and distribute food and blankets to quake victims. Officials estimate that as many as 100,000 people have been left homeless by the temblor and may remain without permanent shelter for weeks.

Many residents are too frightened to return to homes still intact. One man here in the capital, which escaped extensive damage, sent his wife and child to southern Taiwan and slept in his office Tuesday night.

“There are cracks along the walls” in the family’s apartment, he said. “I figure it’s safer at work.”

Despite the outpouring of community spirit, tempers sometimes flared as some residents berated the government for not responding fast enough.

“When are you going to deal with this?” one angry man shouted at Vice President Lien Chan as the official moved through a crowd of quake victims.

Chan and two other leading contenders in next year’s presidential election suspended their campaign activities after the temblor and appealed to the public to help in the relief drive.

The Taiwanese government has pledged $3 billion in low-interest loans to help the recovery effort. Initial estimates of the damage wrought by the temblor also were put at about $3 billion, although it will be some time before the economic impact can fully be assessed.

There were also scattered complaints that shoddy construction--though not on the scale suspected in the Aug. 17 quake in northwest Turkey that killed at least 16,000 people--may have contributed to some of the deaths.

In Taipei, a local prosecutor has been assigned to investigate whether poor design or workmanship triggered the collapse of an apartment block in suburban Hsinchuang, the Taiwan News reported. Eleven people were confirmed dead and more than 100 injured in the collapse.

Only one other building in the capital was so severely damaged: the Sungshan Hotel, which toppled in the quake. While many sleeping inside came through unscathed or with only minor injuries, several victims are still trapped inside, the prospect of finding them alive diminishing by the hour.