[3] Reports vary slightly, but according to the official Central Weather Bureau summary, the casualties and damage were as follows:[4] Fusakichi Omori, a pioneering seismologist from Japan who arrived shortly after the earthquake believed that the high number of casualties was due to the construction of the local houses.

[5] He also found evidence of soil liquefaction, and stated that the town of Bishō (Meishan) had been completely destroyed by the quake.

[5] Omori's figures give slightly different casualty rates, and very different statistics for building damage:[5] The veteran missionary William Campbell wrote: I was there soon after, and had a profound feeling of sadness on seeing whole streets covered with fallen beams and other debris; on seeing, too, so many traces of the awful suffering on every side.

[6]The Japanese colonial authorities in Taihoku (Taipei) sent teams of medical personnel to assist, and Campbell reported that shortly after the earthquake reconstruction efforts were well advanced.

[7] At the time some writers suggested a link between the Meishan quake and the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which occurred a month later,[8] while some religious groups linked it not only with the San Francisco disaster, but also an earlier earthquake in Cambria, Italy and other natural disasters as a sign of the end-times.