Posted on 12/20/2015 12:29:18 PM PST by BenLurkin
Dozens of people are missing after a landslide engulfed 22 buildings at an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
About 900 people were evacuated, and four were pulled from rubble with minor or no injuries, the local government said. No fatalities have been reported.
Shenzhen's fire brigade said it was working to free other trapped people - state media say 59 remain missing
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An area of 20,000 sq m (24,000 square yards) was covered with soil, the Public Security Bureau's firefighting bureau said.
The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a local worker as saying he saw "red earth and mud running towards the company building".
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Ren Jiguang, the deputy chief of Shenzhen's public security bureau, told state broadcaster CCTV that most people had been moved to safety before the landslide hit.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Not the first time.
Well, at least the series of explosions stopped. Now it’s just lots of buildings falling down.
Reminds me of the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.
Oh, my.....
Leni
Prayers for the victims and their loved ones
How could NO ONE be hurt in that? No fatalities? Yikes!
Who the hell ever heard of that "flood" except you?
Yes, I looked it up. Is it an old trivia question?
I read a book about it a while back. “Dark Tide”, I think.
Hard to believe so few are missing
Some are missing. No one deserves that. Pray for them.
This bespeaks criminal corruption. This cannot happen to properly constructed buildings and the Chinese know how to build properly. Builders bribe officials to cut corners, and this is the result. My guess is that the buildings did not have proper pilings and rotated as they settled. This is murder.
If you watch the video, you’ll notice there is NO rebar in the buildings. Masonry crumbles very easily without rebar and prestressing to keep it in compression. The Chinese build most of their buildings very cheaply without any steel reinforcement.
My understanding, third hand at best, is that Chinese building codes are fine, but their construction practices suck because bribes are cheaper than rebar or sound foundations. Some people really do need a bullet in the back of the head.
Having dealt, peripherally, with Chinese officials, my guess is that the bribe is the same whether you are code compliant or not. In New York City, in the day, it took a small bribe to get a compliant building through inspection, with a sliding scale depending on the magnitude of the violation.
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