today on getting answers from refinery regulations to bridge safety to women's rights, there's a lot on the plate of east bay congressman mark desaulnier. he'll be live in the studio with us and long time san francisco giants reporter amy. she. wears many hats or baseball caps. one of them is children's book author. she'll also be here to share her new book and rescue efforts continue in taiwan today after the island is hit with the strongest quake in 25 years, a 7.4 magnitude shaker that killed

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 city's board of supervisors, but peskin is expected to announce his mayoral campaign at an event on saturday. he's 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. i'm 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 who's 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, i'm going to start with you because you're there. glad you're okay in taipei, being from the bay area, you've 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 we're up here on the 15th floor, over in bargetto and, it just it's one of those things where you're 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. that's 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. >> that's right, it's 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 don't really see that, in the bay area, so it was worth the visit. and you know, it just sorry. with what's going on right now, i hear the roads are closed now, same roads we traveled. >> look, i'm so glad your family had a good time there. and you're all safe, but let's go ahead and show some of the damage in that area in hualien, there is obviously that apartment complex, that building that collapsed partially, here's

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 don't know if you i mean, obviously you didn't see any of that, which is great. but that's a mountainous region, isn't it? and once it's 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, you've 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, i'm 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 it's on the ring of fire? can you explain that to our viewers as well? >> let's 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. u've got the european plate. ihink there's something called the sunda plate in there. and they come together at taiwan. so it's 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. it's 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 it's about a factor of, 8 to 10 more than than you had total energy released. but that doesn't 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 it's not surprising that even though they felt it strongly, there really wasn't 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, they're 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 didn't get a strong shaking. it's 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 it's being nearby now. we have an earthquake on the hayward fault. they're 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 we're seeing, that's almost certainly

a soft first story building. you notice that it's 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, haven't about a half a dozen. and south in southern california have taken this on. and this is why it's so important. those are just the buildings that are most at risk. >> is that the big lesson to us? like for any buildings that haven't been retrofitted, that you still have that when you say soft story, kind of like almost like an empty spot where it's not very, you know, there's nothing to really support it. it's like sometimes the garage. >> exactly. that's 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 it's why that first floor stuff is just so incredibly important. but it's 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 haven't dealt with them, san francisco. no, i don't think any bay area has required retrofit of concrete buildings. los angeles did and santa monica, and because they're 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 doesn't kill you, we're great. we do not require our building to be undamaged. it's solely a life safety code. and many engineers and i've 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 haven't 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 it's not a modern construction, it can probably be improved. make sure you have water supplies. that's the most vulnerable part of our infrastructure here in california, because water is a problem here already, and then the other one, i'd really say is talk with your friends and families and neighbors, because because, you know, it's communities that can work together that can recover. and here in california, americans tend to have trouble with, communal action. we're very individualistic, but that's 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 it's 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. it's 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 presidential elections or our last presidential election, i'm a democrat. when we last had a republican, i think there's 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? >> it's 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 that's 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. >> we've got one, two, four of them, the second busiest is the bay bridge in the country, after the george washington bridge. so they're important to us. we've always tried to be at the forefront in california of making sure they were structurally sound. in addition, because we've 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 we've got a busy port in the bay

area as well. so all of those things, i think we've done a good job. we're more stringent than maryland, but we have to stay on it real quickly. >> i know the town hall was originally more specific towards women's issues, what particularly concerns you or that you hope to hear about from your constituents on that? >> i do a lot of town halls. i've 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 don't want to say it's not. it's a working vacation. not a vacation. it's just recess. look, you were talking about speaker mike johnson facing a motion to be vacated by fellow republican marjorie taylor greene. he's in that position since only october , and that only after huge infighting that, you know,

brought things to a standstill. so i'm 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 doesn't. i've 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. we've got work to do, and we have different perspectives all right. >> well, we'll see if that happens. meantime, you're up for reelection in november. you, of course, won your primary easily in in march despite all that. what we're 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 it's you know, it sounds trite, but it's a great honor. >> i walk around that building and think of its history of lincoln and, it's 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 you're getting birthday presents, because i do hear it is. is this your birthday? >> did you come? already happened. at my age, we don't celebrate birthdays anymore. other than we're still here. oh, yeah. >> i totally understand what you're 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 you're interested in attending this week's town hall with congressman mark desaulnier tomorrow night, 630 at the lafayette veterans memorial center, you'll share updates on congress government funding and take your questions. thank you so much, congressman dosanjh. >> always. >> all right. okay. well, she's the ubiquitous san francisco giants reporter, children's book author, and now podcaster to help women launch their careers. is there anything amy g. can't do? she's here to

are in one place. let's take a rollcall. kim, khloe, kourtney, kris, kendall, and kylie? so here. present. where are we? calabasas? we're on hulu. we're 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 children's book, smarty. marty takes the field as amy's 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 you're 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. she's. she's a little bit of me. some of it. she's a little bit of my mom. a little bit of my grandmother, who she's named after. my grandmother's name was martha. and the biggest baseball fan on the planet, unfortunately, a dodgers fan. but oh, but she's gone, so we can't. 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 boys. right. what can we expect from her in this fourth adventure? what happens there? >> the best part about this is

marty really gets a chance to talk about her baseball chops. and so she manages in this book. and so this is a first for we haven't seen a manager, a female manager at the major league level. i'm trying to predict a little bit as to where we might be going. and so marty, marty gets a chance to manage the town's local little league team, and the boys aren't too happy about it and question her ability and question her qualifications. >> gee, that's such fiction. i can't imagine that actually ever slightly based on the truth. oh my gosh. >> and i love the illustration. >> it's fantastic. >> danica o'rourke is the illustrator and she's phenomenal. and a huge giants fan as well. so there's a lot of fun easter eggs in there for giants fans, even though really the story is much broader and really for everyone and any baseball fan, but also anybody looking, you know, to cheer some girls on as female empowerment and there's fantastic easter eggs. that is. >> so your message by the way, and my son drew in it as well.

>> so my son created the logo for the jersey, and he's an aspiring artist as well. >> how did you get so into baseball? >> my mom and dad, so that it started. i remember scoring baseball at four years old, watching my brother play little league. i mean, my whole it's really come full circle. i would laugh when i was in the broadcast for giants games, like i think i was meant to be here since i was a little girl, i've been around baseball. it was what we did. my father coached. i played softball, my mom was the team mom at the time. that was a time that we used, and i think i might get canceled by saying, no, no, that's fine. >> there are two moms. that's what we did in the 70s. >> yeah, and she was the scorekeeper, and my brother and my father would pore over that score book at night, looking at all of the stats and, and i so i learned very young and it was a place of comfort. it's very nostalgic whenever i'm at a game and reminds me of my childhood. >> i mean, because you know your stuff, right? but i and people know that now, of course, you've been doing this for a long time,

but when did you feel like early on especially, there were people who were like, we know why she's there 100, 100. >> i think any female and a male dominated industry can relate to that. and that's kind of what marty, when i say she's a little bit of me, this process of writing about her, super cathartic because she's able to say things that i couldn't. >> yes, i love that. it's definitely worth a read. so great. and i see you have book signings and all that. okay, you've also as if you're not busy enough, you know, you got two kids full time job, this and that author. you've also launched a new podcast called girl. how'd you get the gig? >> and it's exactly how you're supposed to say it. >> so thank you. it is. girl. how'd you get that gig? yes, my podcast partner and long time friend, celeste guerin and i launched the podcast back last may. we're almost at our one year anniversary. today's episode is with jenny kavner, who's also made history. she's a trailblazer as the first primary play by play female announcer in major league baseball. the a's write for the oakland athletics and the whole point is to provide a resource to anyone

wanting to break into the sports world, not just to women, but we only interview women as our little nod to female empowerment and to the trail that women are trying to trying to and continue to blaze in sports. so we interview all walks of life and all jobs. so if you're interested in working in sports, please check it out. it's on every podcast platform and on youtube. and i think it'll answer a lot of questions for graduating college students or somebody making that transition is to i think i want to do that. go check it out. it might be on there. >> any commonalities or tips or this is what you got to do that you can offer to young women. sure >> for you need to be persistent. you need to be persistent and aggressive. follow up. but don't be obnoxious. there's a big difference there. yes. so that that's the best piece of advice i could give. and be patient. it is a process. i think we're in a time of immediacy. i can only speak about my own children,

right? they want it now and they want it yesterday. and it takes time to build the relationships and to get that dream job. >> i love that patience in the 30s we have left giants fans been patiently waiting for a good season. you know there's some disappointments during the off season in terms of recruiting, but the people we signed seem like they're bringing a good vibe and it seems like things are off to a good start. what do you think? how do you feel about the season? >> first and foremost, i love that bob melvin is managing and that matt williams is back in. pat burrell is back. i think you saw an influx of alum come in and kind of right. the ship a little bit as to where fans were feeling that they needed that sense of comfort. and so i think it starts at the top and i love bob melvin, and i think you got a really good group of guys. >> all right. and we're out of time. but you heard it from amy g here first. it's going to be a great season. thank you so much amy. congratulations (packet tears) (tea bag clanks) (water pours) - listening to people that drink bigelow tea is so important to my family,

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tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the harrowing images coming in after the largest earthquake in taiwan in nearly 25 years. the search right now for so many who are trapped. here in the u.s. tonight, the dangerous and deadly storms, tonight turning into a nor'easter. new york city, philadelphia, boston. and the american tourist and the deadly elephant attack tonight. first, those dramatic images after the deadly earthquake in taiwan. the magnitude 7.4 quake. several dead, more than 1,000 injured. and now, the search for the missing, including 71 miners trapped