Posted on 05/14/2008 12:37:27 AM PDT by stlnative
China quake toll soars as full horror begins to emerge
14/05/2008
DUJIANGYAN (AFP) - The full horror of the devastating China earthquake began to emerge Wednesday as rescuers discovered whole towns all but wiped off the map, pushing the death toll well above 20,000.
Military and police teams punched into the heart of the disaster zone, with 100 troops parachuting into a county that was previously cut off while planes and helicopters air-dropped emergency supplies.
But the message that came back from this mountainous corner of southwestern Sichuan province was that town after town was flattened by the 7.9-magnitude quake that struck two days ago.
The death toll has soared well above 20,000, but that toll is rising by the hour as more information comes in from stricken communities.
"The losses have been severe," Wang Yi, who heads an armed police unit sent into the epicentre zone, was quoted as saying by Sichuan Online news site.
"Some towns basically have no houses left. They have all been razed to the ground."
A least 7,700 people died in the small town of Yingxiu alone, state media cited a local government official as saying, with only 2,300 surviving.
Across Sichuan, countless thousands more people are missing or buried under the rubble of shattered homes, schools and factories.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said 100,000 military personnel and police had been mobilised, indicating the epic scale of the country's worst earthquake in a generation.
The air drop started with planes and helicopters flying dozens of sorties, dropping tonnes of food and relief aid into the worst-hit zone, most of it cut off from the outside world by landslides and road closures.
The destruction around the epicentre in remote Wenchuan county is massive, with whole mountainsides sheared off, highways ripped apart and building after building levelled.
Rescue teams have been seen pulling bodies and badly injured survivors out of the ruins.
As well as Yingxiu, CCTV television said air drops were also made in nearby Mianyang -- where the death toll jumped to nearly 5,500 -- as well as Mianzhu and Pengzhou.
Helicopters also flew to Wenchuan with food, drinks, tents, communications equipment and other supplies.
The rescue effort has been badly disrupted since Monday by heavy rain, and the Meteorological Authority forecasting more later in the week, raising the risk of fresh landslides.
Amid the setbacks, the nation focused on the precious minutes going by for those who were buried under rubble but may have survived.
Cries for help were heard from a flattened school in Yingxiu, where people were forced to try and dig out survivors with their hands, state media said.
"The situation in Yingxiu is even worse than expected," one local official said.
In towns and villages across a swathe of Sichuan, heart-rending scenes were played out as grief-stricken families searched for missing loved ones.
In the city of Mianzhu, where at least 3,000 died, rescuers picked through twisted metal and concrete trying to find people whose voices could be heard under the rubble.
"My younger brother is in there," 42-year-old Li -- his eyes bloodshot from sleep deprivation -- said next to a heap that was once a bank.
The local disaster relief headquarters said rescuers had been able to pull 500 people alive out of the debris of collapsed buildings, but 20,000 in three outer villages were still out of reach.
Wednesday's leg of the Olympic torch relay in eastern Jianxi province began with a minute's silence before the runners set off.
Organisers of the Beijing Olympics said they would scale down the relay as the torch makes it way to the capital for the summer Games, a further knock to its troubled round-the-world journey after earlier protests over Tibet.
World powers including the United States, European Union and United Nations as well as the International Olympic Committee have rallied round with offers of help.
China welcomed the offers but said conditions were "not yet ripe" to allow in foreign rescue teams, citing damage to transport links.
A Japanese foreign ministry official in charge of emergency aid said Japan offered rescue teams with sniffer dogs, but China had made no request.
US President George W. Bush and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao discussed the disaster by telephone, with Washington offering half a million dollars in initial disaster aid.
Quake Tragedy in China Opens Door Slightly for Media, New and Old
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 May 2008, 15:00 CDT
BEIJING _ Amid a national outpouring of grief over Monday’s huge earthquake, China has relaxed its grip _ perhaps only briefly _ on the Internet and some media outlets.
Chinese witnesses to the devastation in Sichuan province have flooded Web sites with homemade videos, filled chat rooms with commentary and let text messages fly from their mobile phones.
The disaster has provided an opportunity for “citizen journalists” to disseminate tidbits of information at a furious pace rarely seen before, experts said.
China’s conventional media, initially lagging behind bloggers and users of instant messaging services, also have found greater freedoms, showing often-distressing images of quake-ruined areas without the sanitizing that censors usually demand.
~SNIP~ (All McClatchy sources must be excerpted and linked)
Girl pulled from quake rubble after 50 hours
(CNN) — A frightened schoolgirl was pulled safely from the rubble of a school dormitory Wednesday evening — 50 hours after she was buried by Monday’s earthquake, state-run media said.
In a weak voice, the trapped girl called out to one of the rescuers, “uncle, save me, save me,” the uncle said. “If anything (bad) had happened to her, the voice could haunt me for the rest of my life.”
~SNIP~ (CNN must be excerpted and linked only)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/14/quake.thursday/?iref=mpstoryview
3000 tourists evacuated from quake area
From correspondents in Beijing | May 15, 2008
MORE than 3000 domestic and foreign tourists stranded in a scenic spot in China’s quake-hit Sichuan province have been evacuated, state media reported today.
About 6000 tourists had been stranded in Jiuzhaigou after Monday’s massive 7.9-magnitude quake, the worst to hit China for a generation, the official Xinhua news agency said today.
The remaining 2517 tourists, including 682 from overseas, will be evacuated today, Xinhua quoted the National Tourism Administration as saying.
It said that all those rescued would be taken to “safe places”.
The administration’s disaster relief office said 11 Taiwanese tourists stranded in cable cars in Lingyan Mountain in Dujiangyan had been rescued, although a 56-year-old man had died.
As of late yesterday, 19 British tourists and 12 guests from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) had arranged to stay in the Wolong giant panda nature reserve and were unharmed, the report said.
Britain’s foreign ministry and a travel company had said yesterday that a group of 19 British tourists remained missing after the quake.
There was no immediate confirmation from London that the British tourists were safe and sound or that the Chinese state media report was referring to the same group.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23701593-12335,00.html
Many photos here...
Current:
http://cryptome.org/cn-quake3/cn-quake3.htm
China earthquake photos 2 (May 13 and 14, 2008): http://cryptome.org/cn-quake2/cn-quake2.htm
China earthquake photos 1 (May 12 and 13, 2008): http://cryptome.org/cn-quake/cn-quake.htm
Stranded tourists, including 50 foreigners, reported safe near China quake epicenter
2008-05-15 05:48:28
CHENGDU, May 14 (Xinhua) — Tourists and journalists, including more than 50 foreigners, stranded at a town near the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan Province were safe, a local official said on Wednesday.
No deaths or injuries have been reported from the stranded tourists and journalists who have been stranded at the panda town of Wolong in Wenchuan County, the epicenter, the official said.
“They have been arranged to stay in a local hotel,” said Zhang Wenxiang, of the Wolong Giant Panda Administration.
Telecommunications had been cut for Wolong, famous for the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, since Monday.
The foreigners included 12 Americans from the World Wide Fund for Nature, Zhang said.
“Wolong and the neighboring Gengda township suffered a lot in the earthquake. Roads were destroyed by landslides and 90 percent of local houses collapsed,” he said.
“We are in great shortage of medicine,” he added.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan Monday afternoon and it was also felt in most parts of the county.
The death toll across the country has risen to 14,866, the latest government statistics show.
Among those, 14,463 were confirmed dead in Sichuan Province, 280 in Gansu Province, 106 in Shaanxi Province, 14 in Chongqing Municipality, two in Henan Province, one in Yunnan Province and one in Hubei Province.
After the earthquake, a number of travel agencies in different provinces of China have reported that tourists had been stranded in Sichuan.
On Wednesday, a Taiwanese tourist surnamed Wang fell 50 meters from a cable car during a rescue mission and died after treatment failed, bringing the death toll of Taiwan compatriots to two in the aftermath of Monday’s Sichuan quake.
Meanwhile, 1,958 Taiwanese tourists are still awaiting for flights back to Taiwan, with 588 stranded in Jiuzhaigou, a tourist attraction in Sichuan.
Fourteen tourists with a Taiwan-based travel agency named “Auspicious Crane” are still out of reach for the time being. Taiwan local media predicted that they were probably trapped on their way from Maoxian county to Wenchuan.
The National Tourism Administration has ordered all local travel agencies to halt its planned journeys destined to or passing through quake-hit areas.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8173313.htm
China sends 101 more helicopters to quake-hit area for relief work
2008-05-15 05:40:14
BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) — China’s Defense Ministry said early Thursday that it has ordered the deployment of 101 more helicopters to the quake-hit Sichuan province.
The General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army has ordered the airborne troops of the Army and Air Force to send 71 more transport helicopters to help the quake relief work, a spokesman of the Ministry told Xinhua.
He said the civil aviation department will also send 30 transport helicopters to the quake-hit area.
These helicopters will engage in airdropping materials, transferring the wounded and delivering troops, said the spokesman.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8173309.htm
Most Chinese know nothing about it. Those who do primarily see Uncle Sam as pitting one barbarian (the Chinese) against another (the Japanese). It ain't pretty, but there it is. At the same time, there is a great deal of hatred of Uncle Sam for getting involved in what they call the Chaoxian (Korean) War in the 1950's.
Have you heard anything about this...
A huge lake called the Bai Shui has completely disappeared, apparently sucked down into the earth’s crust after the quake.
http://www.amoymagic.com/Ningde/baishui8.jpg
The entire 40,000m2 Baishuiyang Lake lies only a few inches above a massive flat rock, making it the perfect venue not only for walking on water but also watertop sports events and bike races. Some folks even drive their cars across the lake!
It's not a function of the size of China's population. China has only four times the US population, but American villages can have only a few hundred people. The fact is that China's form of government is top down, command-and-control, in comparison to the US's which is bottom-up. The reason a Chinese "village" can have 100,000 people is because China's top priority isn't government responsiveness - it's minimizing administrative costs. The US has a high-cost (low-efficiency), high-effectiveness government. China has a low-cost (high-efficiency), low-effectiveness government. But the low cost of China's government is only on the surface - the large-scale graft that accompanies it means that the indirect financial cost to China's people and economy is pretty high, even though the direct monetary cost is low.
to all:
I am new here,and I'm really not familiar with this site.Only the link I have in the browser I can track.(fortunately I remember FR and find it in Google and when I log in I can find the post I joined through the personal page.)
I appreciate the link stlnative provided in the first post which made us come to this site.
Really difficult for me to completely browse this site full of foreigh language.Unfortunately I dont have translation software now in this working computer to help me describing and reading. When I go home I will continue track these threads.Sorry I'm not good at posting news,but I'd like to see more American's opinion.
BTW,Could anyone tell me what does "Ping" mean?
I'm afraid that the Chinese are polite hosts to a fault. This means they will skip over controversial issues, telling you what you want to hear. My conversations with random strangers (as opposed to designated hosts) have been far more enlightening.
It is true that the city of Nanjing was the site of a massacre. The toll was in the tens or hundreds of thousands, depending on whether you use Japanese or Chinese figures. It's nowhere near the 12m number ascribed to the Holocaust. And the massacre occurred much as such massacres have occurred in the past, in the aftermath of significant battles with serious losses on both sides.
It is in this respect that it is similar to other Nanjing city-wide massacres perpetrated at least two other times by Chinese in centuries past. And it is in this respect that it is qualitatively different from the Holocaust, where non-combatants were conscripted as slave laborers and deliberately worked to death or gassed over a period of time long after any hostilities, or lack thereof, solely on the basis of their ethnicities.
Ping will show you your posts, and posts to you
I would agree. I’m sure he/she has his/her reasons and courtesy would expect a response. Hear anything yet?
Thank you~~~really helpful
Now, 3 days after the disaster, more than 100,000 soldier, policeman, fireman, rescue team (including international teams) and doctors have been sent there. 60 more helicopters have been put into use for transport survivors, water and food.
DB, you can't use population of China as the base to get “1 of 10,000” to show it's short of hands. The point is how many people we need in this rescue, not how many we have.
Ok, at least, we want everybody here know that our people and gov are trying our best to save lives.
Donation has begun in our firm also in other cities of China.
Denny Crane, character Boston Legal, said “Even Democratic didn’t criticize government at war time”
We are at war time to fight for life.
Can you imagine what 7.9 quake could do to the Mississippi River. Scary.
But no I haven’t heard that news. That is what keeps pissing me off about the media. Seems the internet has the ball with this news story.
For the new members, Welcome to FR and thanks for the dialog. I have yet to find a better site for news anywhere than here at FreeRepublic.
Just for the record Mao was quoted during his insurgency as saying that if necessary he was prepared to see "half of China die" so he could seize power. Nice guy that. Even then he was indicating mass killing unimaginable to the civilized West.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2008-05/15/content_6687525_2.htm
Teenage hero
Zhu Fumin, a senior high school student, was hailed a hero for his calmness, courage and wisdom in helping to save 33 young lives.
The 15-year-old ordered everyone to “lie prone” when the quake first jolted their classroom, his classmate Dai Yingying said.
Most of the teenagers heeded his advice and quickly ducked under their desks.
In the darkness some began to scream and cry.
“Zhu told us to stay calm and not to get exhausted,” Dai said. “He said ‘be brave, young men, stop crying, girls’.”
In a few minutes the students calmed down.
When some students used their mobile phones as torches, they discovered the ceiling had caved in on them.
Several students who did not move fast enough were pinned between the ceiling and their desks.
Zhang Li, the girl who sat next to Dai, had passed out underneath the slab.
Dai reached out to pinch her, hoping to snap her back into consciousness.
“She woke up for a moment, but she couldn’t breathe and was soon unconscious again,” Dai said.
In about an hour, Dai heard noises outside the debris and found a little hole where a ventilator had been removed.
He shouted through the hole for help and discovered that teachers and students, who had been on the playground at the time of the tremor, were digging furiously.
Zhu and another boy joined them and with all their might dug a hole in a wall through which 33 escaped.
Nine of the trapped students were confirmed dead, Long Mingquan, a school teacher, said
County ‘disappeared’
Zhu Guiping felt lucky he didn’t shut the classroom door on Monday afternoon, because 80 percent of his students escaped the three-story crush through it.
The teacher of Qushan Primary School in Beichuan was about to start class when he heard a bang.
“I sensed danger and yelled ‘Earthquake, get out’,” he said.
The school, built at the foot of a mountain, rocked so wildly that no one could keep their feet on the playground.
“I laid down myself,” Zhu said. “The ground was moving and I felt as light as a tree leaf. In a minute or two, I thought the ground cracked and I lost consciousness.”
When he came to he realized he had lost his glasses.
“I rubbed my eyes and saw the whole county had disappeared. Not a single house remained standing.”
He stood up and found children and teachers had been buried in the rubble.
“I felt helpless. No one was around to help, so I used my hands to dig out whoever was within reach.”
20-day-old survivor
Ma Yunxiang’s family huddled together in a tent on the outskirts of Beichuan yesterday, counting their blessings.
His wife, Wang Shifang, was feeding their 20-day-old son, when the disaster struck.
“My legs and waist were buried in the ruins when I tried to run out of the door with the child,” Wang said.
Her husband and her brother and sister, who happened to be visiting them at the time, managed to free them.
“My son was suffocating and his face turned purple, but thank heavens he’s alive,” Wang said.
The parents decided to name the baby Ma Zhenchuan, with “zhen” standing for quake and “chuan” for Beichuan.
Don’t worry about the Chinese. Most likely the missing ones have had FR blocked by their China internet providers. That is the easiest way for China to do it.
China is 13 hours ahead of me... It is 10:07am here while it is 11:07am there.
Many are probably back in class or working.
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