Posted on 05/12/2008 8:47:42 AM PDT by charles m
A rescuer searches for victims after an earthquake in Chongqing municipality May 12, 2008.
Water and mud flow on a street after an earthquake broke an underground pipe in Chengdu, Sichuan province
CHONGQING, China - Chinese state media says more than 8,500 have died in Sichuan province alone from a massive earthquake.
The official Xinhua News Agency said that another 10,000 people were believed hurt in one of the province's counties after the 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday.
Nearly 900 students were trapped after their school collapsed about 60 miles from the quake's epicenter. Xinhua reported students also were buried under five other toppled schools.
The earthquake struck in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full.
The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.
Terrible. Prayers for all those affected.
Another thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2014670/posts
Compare and contrast ... were this a big city in the U.S., there would probably be looters running rampant in the streets. Just saying....
Sure. What happens to looters in China?
They become organ donors.......
why is it that schools seem to collapse more notably and terribly than other public buildings- not just in China but elsewhere in the 3rd world
Corrupt contractors cutting corners during construction, using inferior materials? My guess. I hope it never happens here.
prayer bump
*****************
Exactly.
Um yeah...
I'm sure the average Chinese person knows that they would have a guaranteed bullet in the head if they tried looting in the wake of a disaster (much less in any event) and Lord help them if they were spared a bullet and ended up in a Chinese prison.
Knowing that...I guess I'm not sure what you're "sayin"?
A 7.8 magnitude quake centered 60 miles from a city of 10.5 million? Unfortunately I think 8500 dead is not even scratching the surface of the eventual total.
Many schools collapsed badly in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake (70 destroyed) Fortunately, it was at 6PM and only a few students were killed. It led to the Field Act which mandated strict school construction standards in California.
Yup...
1976
Jul. 28, Tangshan China: Twenty sq mi of the city was devastated by an earthquake that measured 7.5 in magnitude. The New China News Agency released figures following the inaugural Congress of the Chinese Seismological Society in Nov. 1979 which claimed 242,000 dead and 164,000 injured. The USGS estimates the real death toll at 655,000. This is the 20th century’s worst earthquake.
By all accounts, Chengdu was left almost entirely unscathed. The areas that were hit hardest were directly in the fault line. Beichuan and Wenchuan counties.
It was just an observation -- the pics kinda got me to thinking about how there are parts of the US that are little better than 3rd-world sh*tholes.
, silverleaf wrote:
why is it that schools seem to collapse more notably and terribly than other public buildings- not just in China but elsewhere in the 3rd world
Corrupt contractors cutting corners during construction, using inferior materials? My guess. I hope it never happens here.”
Ha, we just had a recent article about Chinese contractors building dorms in SC schools. The Manchu marches on.
“A 7.8 magnitude quake centered 60 miles from a city of 10.5 million? Unfortunately I think 8500 dead is not even scratching the surface of the eventual total.”
One would certainly think so, especially in a non-Western country with the construction standards that are there.
This is terrible, but an even worse catastrophe is expected if the Three Rivers dam in China ever gives way (and it might).
Prayers for the afflicted in Myanmar and China, and a pox on the corrupt and nasty governments of both.
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