The Indian subcontinent is prone to earthquakes in both interplate and intraplate regions. Areas that have been identified as severe seismic regions include the Himalayan belt in the north from Kashmir to Manipur; Gujarat in the west; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the southeast. The faults in these areas are capable of generating large-magnitude earthquakes that would subject neighboring areas to significant ground shaking. Thus, seismic hazard assessment is of prime importance in India.

On 5 February 2016, a moderate earthquake occurred in southwestern Taiwan with M L 6.4 and a focal depth of 16.7 km. This earthquake caused damage to a few buildings and 117 casualties. A low‐cost earthquake early warning (EEW) system ( P ‐alert) is in operation for the purpose of EEW and for providing near‐real‐time shake maps. During this event, a detailed shaking map was generated by the P ‐alert system within 2 min after the earthquake occurrence, and the high shaking regions strongly correlated with the locations in which the damage and casualties occurred. In the field, individual P ‐alert devices also serve as onsite EEW systems using P ‐wave information. The individual P ‐alert provided a 4–8 s lead time before the arrival of violent shaking in the damaged regions. For regional EEW, both the Central Weather Bureau (CWB, official agency) and the P ‐alert system responded very well. Currently, regional warnings in Taiwan are only provided to cities at epicentral distances of 50 km or more by the CWB. For cities within a 50‐km epicentral distance, the P ‐alert system could be useful for providing onsite EEW. The performance of the P ‐alert network during this earthquake proves the efficiency of this real‐time, low‐cost network in terms of early warning (regional and onsite), near‐real‐time shake maps, rapid reports, and strong‐motion data for research purposes.

On 6 February 2018, an $Mw$ 6.4 earthquake struck near the city of Hualien, in eastern Taiwan with a focal depth of 10.4 km. The earthquake caused strong shaking and severe damage to many buildings in Hualien. The maximum intensity during this earthquake reached VII ($>0.4g$) in the epicentral region, which is extreme in Taiwan and capable of causing damage in built structures. About 17 people died and approximately 285 were injured. Taiwan was one of the first countries to implement an earthquake early warning (EEW) system that is capable of issuing a warning prior to strong shaking. In addition to the official EEW run by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), a low‐cost EEW system ($P$‐alert) has been deployed by National Taiwan University (NTU). The $P$‐alert network is currently operational and is capable of providing on‐site EEW as well as a map of expected ground shaking. In the present work, we demonstrate the performance of the $P$‐alert network during the 2018 Hualien earthquake. The shake maps generated by the $P$‐alert network were available within 2 min and are in good agreement with the patterns of observed damage in the area. These shake maps provide insights into rupture directivity that are crucial for earthquake engineering. During this earthquake, individual $P$‐alert stations acted as on‐site EEW systems and provided 2–8 s lead time in the blind zone around the epicenter. The coseismic deformation ($Cd$) is estimated using the records of $P$‐alert stations. The higher $Cd$ values ($Cd>2$) in the epicentral region are very helpful for authorities for the purpose of responding to damage mitigation.