Officials: China orders probe of school collapses in quake

www.chinaview.cn [Xinhua] ^ | 2008-05-16

[brityank]

Officials: China orders probe of school collapses in quake

BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has ordered local authorities to investigate the reasons why school buildings collapsed in the earthquake, said Yang Rong, director of the ministry's department of standards and norms, in an online interview on Friday.

    "If quality problems do exist in the school buildings, we will deal with the persons responsible strictly with no toleration and give the public a satisfying answer," said Han Jin, head of the development and plan department of the Ministry of Education in the interview.

Rescuers clean out the debris pressing on a trapped middle school student Yang Hong in quake-striken Beichuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 15, 2008. Trapped for nearly 60 hours, the Junior third grade student Yang Hong of Beichuan Middle School was finally rescued around the zero hour of May 15. His left foot was fractured, while mind remained fully conscious. (Xinhua/Chen Faliang)
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    "Our top priority at present is to save lives, but investigations into construction quality will also be launched," Han replied to online questions.

    The 7.8-magnitude quake that struck southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday was known to have destroyed 216,000 structures in the province, including 6,898 school buildings, as of Wednesday, according to incomplete calculations, said Han.

    Accurate data is yet to come out, as damage has not been calculated in some of the most badly-hit regions such as Wenchuan County, the epicenter, and Beichuan County, he said.

    The quake hit at 2:28 p.m., when students were in class, leading to relatively severe fatalities among teachers and students, said Han.

    "We want to express our deepest condolences to the teachers and students who lost their precious lives in the quake," he said.

    The government would take the responsibility of rebuilding quake-stricken primary and high schools, while those deep in the countryside would be provided with operating expenses and salaries for teachers, said Han.

    The reason for the collapse of buildings, including schools, would be thoroughly probed and analyzed, as the force of the quake had far exceeded the anticipated degree on which the government established quake-resistance standards for buildings in those areas, said Yang.

Soldiers remove floor slabs during a rescue operation for pupils at the collapsed Jinhua Town Primary School in the quake-hit Jinhua Town of Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 15, 2008. (Xinhua/Liu Zheng) 
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    He said China had clear requirements on seismic-resistant designs for buildings in primary and high schools.

    Whether to raise the standard would be considered after rechecking the local quake intensity and investigating the damage, said Yang, adding that the latest scientific research and China's economic and social situation would also be taken into account.

    The quality of school buildings came under the spotlight as reports showed hundreds of students had been buried under crushed schools after the quake.

    Juyuan Middle School, located in an obscure town in Dujiangyan City neighboring Wenchuan, saw about 900 students and teachers buried when its school building collapsed in Monday's quake, and more than 60 were confirmed dead by Tuesday.

    As of 12 p.m. Thursday, 360 students had been rescued from the ruins of the Beichuan Middle School in the Beichuan County, with another 700 more still buried under ruins of the school's main building.

    The issue of collapsed school buildings received most attention from Internet users during Friday's interview.

    There were no national figures of casualties in schools yet.

    The Ministry of Education has told jolted schools to suspend classes according to local needs and, together with the Ministry of Finance, allocated an emergency fund of 50 million yuan (7.14 U.S. dollars) to assist teachers and students.

    "The government has always highly valued the work to improve anti-quake standards for construction projects," said Yang.

    China has upgraded its quake-resistant standards of buildings seven times since the 1950s, said Yang. They included two major revisions after a 7.8-magnitude quake in 1976 and a series of jolts, with the largest one measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, in 1966 in north China.

    China now has 48 special standards for houses, urban infrastructure, railways, roads, power grids, water conservancy works and other projects for the purpose of protecting them from quake damages, according to Yang.

    The worst quake in three decades in China had killed 19,509 people by 4 p.m. Thursday as official data show, while more than 50,000 were feared dead.

    Yang urged people in quake regions to stay away from buildings judged as dangerous or structures whose situation was unclear in case of aftershocks.

    Experts have been dispatched to help appraise the injuries of buildings that were not completely damaged in the jolt, said Yang.

[brityank]

SS-DC !!

Same sh*t - different country! :^)

Graft and corruption are no stranger to these shores, as your missives have pointed out. Bob Bullard must be a friend of yours, no? ;^)

[Travis McGee]

Very true. I hope the Chinese learn an important lesson here, and I trust they will. I also very much hope their dams hold.

[brityank]

I saw one pic of a team on top of a dam, with a 4-6 inch wide crack running along the top from one side to the other. That doesn’t bode well for it’s stability, and another quake or flooding deluge will topple it. Heaven help anyone downstream. I too hope they hold, and that the Chinese will be able to draw down the impoundments to effect a good repair.

[old-and-old]

In Turkey a while back I remember reading about mass arrests of construction officials, right after a massive earthquake. Chicoms will want blood from someone. Contractors should stay low or move...even North Korea is safer.

[old-and-old]

thanks. I looked at the pix again. Usually there is always crumbled steel hanging, not in these buildings apparently.

[stlnative]

Thanks for the ping.
It is so very sad that so many children had to die due cheap sh*tty construction of schools.

Another thing that is so STUPID is building at foot the of mountains. (I guess the rent is real cheap there)


A survivor carrying goods evacuates the area past a huge rock lying on top of a car on a road near a mountain in the centre of earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, May 16, 2008. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

[stlnative]

Oooo I would like to see that picture. If if you run across it again please post it.

[BunnySlippers]

Northridge quake was 6.7. Schools withstood it but I hope we are lucky next time.

[Roccus]

NYC is rife with unreinforced brick buildings. An earthquake that would be of little consequence on the west coast would be disastrous there.

[stlnative]

This is a decent map that shows towm locations.

[stlnative]

This shows the epicenter being closer to the Dam.

[stlnative]

This handout satellite image (L) taken by Taiwan's FORMOSAT-2 on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 and released on May 16, 2008, shows the areas (in brown) devastated by Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Beichuan County of southwest China's Sichuan province. The photo would compare the same areas in an image taken in 2006 (R).

[brityank]

Here it is; I saved it on my PC but didn't save the location I got it from.

Crack at Fengshou Reservoir Dam

[brityank]

Looking at the amount of destruction that the landslides have caused, I doubt there is any safe place to go. Up on the hillsides and risk a slide, or in front of a dam and hope to swim. No good choices.

[stlnative]

Thanks - in this country that is more like a levee.

[stlnative]

here is the location on the picture (I just found it)
http://english.sina.com/p/1/2008/0516/159326.html

[stlnative]

I feel for all these children greatly. After they all heal can you imagine the high axiety and the fears they will have when they have to return back to school.

Maybe the Chinese will get smart and only build ground level schools in the future. Yes it will take up more land
but the young lives it it will save in the future during the next big quake is well worth it.

[brityank]

Thanks, added that into my list.

There are many earthen dams, some as high as 100 feet or more. They have concrete spillways and some support structures, but the main part is just a pile of dirt -- a very big pile. :^)

[stlnative]

It just gets worse...

100,000 trapped in Pengzhou City
2008-05-16 15:28:51 ET SINA English

Beijing, May 17 — About 400,000 people in Pengzhou City have been affected by the deadly earthquake, of which 100,000 victims are trapping amomg the mountains, a report from Xinhua said.

Xinhua reporters drove into Pengzhou in early morning, May 16. It is the first time that reporters entered into Pengzhou areas.

Pengzhou, a city 20 kilometres away from Chengdu, has a population of 800,000.

http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0516/159402.html

[stlnative]

Rescue team searches and cleans at Nanba Elementary School, Nanba Town, Qingwu County, Mianyang, Sichuan Province, May 15. (Xinhua Photo/Jiang Yi)