China Hit By Earthquake

Drudge Report ^ | Updated:08:00, Monday May 12, 2008 | Sky News

[Lijahsbubbe]

An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has hit China's Sichuan province. The tremor was felt across the entire region - shaking buildings in the capital, Beijing, as well as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. US Geological Survey said the quake struck 57 miles north-west of the city of Chengdu at 2.29pm local time (6.28am GMT).

Some 10 million people live in Chengdu.

[mickey finn]

Appology accepted. Stay safe. My prayers are with your people.

[SE Mom]

I honestly don’t know what to make of it.

But it’s been fascinating to follow the thread, at any rate..

[MARKUSPRIME]

Yeah the pro-prc/ccp(sinodefence cmf,and other assorted forums) sites hate the US.

[Admin Moderator]

B.S. You’re out of here.

[txhurl]

I started following this bizarreness at ?noon or so... at the time there was an astonishing amount of thread views (I included the Mary thread for comparison purposes):

THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY

Sunday, May 11, 2008 7:21:00 AM · by Gamecock · 446 replies · 3,740+ views

Christian Truth ^ | William Webster A Roman Catholic Dogma Originating with Heretics and Condemned as Heretical by 2 Popes in the 5th and 6th Centuries. By William Webster The Roman Catholic doctrine of the assumption of Mary teaches that she was assumed body and soul into heaven either without dying or shortly after death. This extraordinary claim was only officially declared to be a dogma of Roman Catholic faith in 1950, though it had been believed by many for hundreds of years. To dispute this doctrine, according to Rome’s teaching, would result in the loss of salvation. The official teaching of the Assumption comes from...

Children Killed In China Earthquake

Monday, May 12, 2008 2:27:28 AM · by Lijahsbubbe · 458 replies · 15,240+ views

Sky News ^ | Updated:08:00, Monday May 12, 2008 | Sky News An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has hit China's Sichuan province. The tremor was felt across the entire region - shaking buildings in the capital, Beijing, as well as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. US Geological Survey said the quake struck 57 miles north-west of the city of Chengdu at 2.29pm local time (6.28am GMT). Some 10 million people live in Chengdu.

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The views at about 3pm were ~11K.

Did their forum members think maybe we had better coverage of the quake than they did?

[rdl6989]

Thanks for the ping. It looks like the death toll is around 10,000.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7513452

[txhurl]

Right on. Now we’re going to need one of our soldiers back, if’n you kin see toit. thanks

[don-o]

Right on. Now we’re going to need one of our soldiers back, if’n you kin see toit. thanks

ditto dat!

[SE Mom]

Whoa. Now that’s an intriguing little tidbit. Normally that many views is for a LIVE election or debate thread.

Meanwhile:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080512/ts_nm/quake_dc

~snip~

“Strengthen positive guidance of opinion,” the meeting urged, warning against the spread of rumors.

~snip~

[MARKUSPRIME]

Yep aka the thought police.

[sleddogs]

I pray this is nowhere near the tragedy 1976 quake

Tangshan: The Deadliest Earthquake

At 3:42 a.m. on July 28, 1976, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the sleeping city of Tangshan, in northeastern China. The very large earthquake, striking an area where it was totally unexpected, obliterated the city of Tangshan and killed over 240,000 people - making it the deadliest earthquake of the twentieth century.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/horribledisasters/a/tangshan.htm

[SE Mom]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080512/ts_nm/quake_dc

~snip~

Most farmers’ homes in two townships had collapsed and there was no word from the three townships nearest the epicenter, which have a population of 24,000, the report added. So far Wenchuan has reported 15 dead, a number likely to rise steeply.

More than 7,000 may have died in Sichuan’s Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, where 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed, Sichuan television said. Beichuan has a population of 161,000, meaning about one in 10 there were killed or injured.

“Even if it means walking in, we must enter the worst-hit areas as quickly as possible,” Wen said, according to Xinhua.

But a paramilitary officer marching with a hundred troops towards Wenchuan described a devastated landscape that is likely to yield many dead and to frustrate rescuers.

“I have seen many collapsed civilian houses and the rocks dropped from mountains on the roadside are everywhere,” said the People’s Armed Police officer Liu Zaiyuan, according to Xinhua.

~snip~

[txhurl]

It’s like the IOC is running China now. Crazy.

I wonder if PRC hasn’t set a trap: let FR thru and go get all the poor people who come looking for us.

[stlnative]

Quake horror: Thousands buried in one factory alone

Posted 29 minutes ago
Updated 9 minutes ago

The powerful earthquake that struck south-western China killed or buried “several thousand” people at a single factory in Sichuan province, the state-run Xinhua news agency says.

The report, which gave few other specifics on the casualty numbers, said the disaster occurred when a steam turbine factory collapsed in the town of Hanwang in Mianzhu city.

~snip~

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/13/2242920.htm?section=justin

[meanie monster]

Oh no, there is no telling how many died.

[stlnative]

The death toll will be huge.

[Admin Moderator]

It’s not going to happen. Pretending to represent a government agency, even though it may have been posted as humor, is intimidating to new Freepers and will not be tolerated on this site.
AM

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Good grief, things are really bad.

However, this statement gives hope, “Not one minute can be wasted,” Wen said, state television showed. “One minute, one second could mean a child’s life.”

[txhurl]

Oh. Guess we better all get out our cucumber sandwiches and pinky fingers in case a new lurker show up at high tea.

And tuck in your shirt, barbarian.

[stlnative]

May 12, 2008, 8:15 pm
The Earthquake Online: ‘I Just Got Back From Hell’

A photo posted by “Aren” shows a building destroyed in the earthquake.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, people across China continued to turn to the Web to post firsthand accounts and look for information on loved ones.

One writer who goes by the name Aren posted photos of Dujiangyan, a town near the earthquake’s epicenter where a school collapse killed hundreds of students. “I just got back from hell,” Aren wrote on a Chinese-language site, describing chaos and at least two bodies still lying amid rubble on the street. (Warning: Some of the photos on the site are graphic.) http://bbs.cdqss.com/thread-344374-1-1.html

The popular Chinese-language forum Tianya.cn was flooded with updates and requests for news from family members.

~SNIP~

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/05/12/blogging-the-earthquake-i-just-got-back-from-hell/