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.
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.
“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.