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.
I see, thanks.
China makes public plea for quake-related rescue equipment
2008-05-15 12:33:28
BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) — The Ministry of Industry and Information made an urgent public call on Thursday for rescue equipment to aid the work in quake regions.
It listed 31 types of equipment, ranging from hammers, shovels and demolition tools to cranes, rubber boats and life detectors. The amount needed varied between several hundred and 50,000.
Many armed police and rescue workers had to remove cement slabs with their bare hands to save quake victims, news footage has shown.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8176250.htm
:-)
It does it automatically when you leave 1 line of space between link and comments - no HTML tag needed then
Thanks for all the updates.
http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/sport/1/132384.shtml
It said 15 parachutists were sent there and all are in contact now.But for the difficult envirment no more are sent after that.
Thanks...
I’ll be back in about 30 minutes are so.
err...maybe I misunderstand your meaning.I put a tag within,seems not work.
I think I'd better use the link html code form now on. thanks again.
It is hard to mobilize help in heavy rain, and with mountain roads blocked by landslides. There have been criticisms about slowness of Chinese Gov to accept outside offers of help. I recall when we had our Katrina disaster, several European countries offered help, and we were very inefficient about accepting it. Of course, our whole response to Katrina was pretty inefficient, never mind utilizing outside aid.
leave tag off completely
you will get it
Thanks for the different perspective. It seems there are two views on some of this. That’s okay.
You take care.
D1
Please...
It would be polite if you would post just post a link to pictures that show dead children and dead people in it and leave a warning that the “picture link” contains graphic images of dead children or people.
This is how we normally do things around here as some people get very emotionally upset seeing these types of pictures directly within a thread.
it would be done like this... (then people who wish to look at them can click the link instead of being forced to look at it because it pops up in the post)
Warning graphic photos of deceased quake victims
PingWu town pictures
http://img04.album.enorth.com.cn/big/07/31/00/7310022_659374.jpg
I know
ok,I’LL be care this
Thank you
I don’t want to upset you or anyone by bringing this up, but I know you are new here and you did not know until I said something to you about it.
I have seen the destruction and loss of life as I have tried to understand the scope of this damage on-line, you are right and wrong. It would be wise to avail the link but by virtue of opening the thread it will subject you to disturbing pictures.
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