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.
Typically through the years that I have been here graphic photos are normally linked to only with a written warning. This gives a thread viewer/reader a choice if they want to view them or not.
Some FReepers get physically sick and upset seeing these types of pictures.
Breakdown of casualties in China’s worst quake in three decades
2008-05-15 02:08:58
BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) — A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan County of southwest China’s Sichuan Province Monday afternoon, killing almost 15,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring regions.
The worst quake in three decades in China was felt in most parts of the county. The following is a detailed list of casualties reported from different regions, based on the latest government statistics.
1. SICHUAN PROVINCE — The death toll has reached 14,463. Another 64,746 people were injured and 25,788 buried in debris. Some 1,405 people are missing.
Wenchuan County (the epicenter): At least 500 people confirmed dead.
Mianyang City: 5,430 dead, 1,396 missing, 18,486 buried and 23,235 injured.
Deyang City: 6,049 dead, 21,020 injured and 6,200 buried.
Chengdu City: 1,215 dead and 5,735 injured.
Guangyuan City: 711 dead, 11 missing, 1,102 buried and 9,838 injured.
2. GANSU PROVINCE — 280 killed.
Longnan City: 173 killed and 2,027 injured.
3. SHAANXI PROVINCE — 106 killed.
4. CHONGQING MUNICIPALITY — 14 killed, including five pupils.
5. HENAN PROVINCE — Two confirmed dead.
6. YUNNAN PROVINCE — One confirmed dead.
7. HUBEI PROVINCE — One confirmed dead.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8173136.htm
Chinese seismologist: Migrating toads might not be linked with earthquake
2008-05-15 14:17:49
BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) — Animals’ abnormal activities might not be reliable evidence for a coming earthquake, a Chinese seismologist told a Xinhua reporter in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
Chinese netizens posted on blogs and bulletin boards, citing the abnormal migration of tens of thousands of toads before May 12in Mianyang, a city close to Wenchuan, the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, as a sign of a coming quake.
“There are complicated reasons for the anomaly of animals and underground water. An earthquake is only one of them along with climate change and weather conditions,” said Zhang Guomin, a research fellow with the Research Institute of Seismology under China Seismological Bureau.
Earthquake forecasts was always based on scientific analysis, and not tailored to political requirements, said Zhang.
He said no seismological authorities in any country could accurately predict earthquakes.
Deputy director of China Earthquake Networks Center Zhang Xiaodong said: “To find out about the relationship between the abnormal natural phenomenon and earthquakes is actually one of the most important and difficult topics for studies in earthquake forecasting.”
He said it would be a big breakthrough for earthquake research if there was any clear index of natural phenomenon before earthquakes happen. “The problem is that phenomenon which features the prelude of one earthquake might not happen before another earthquake in another place.”
He added that it also increased the difficulty of data collection for earthquake forecasting because of the small probability of strong earthquakes repeatedly hitting the same area in a short period of time. So the sampling of similar abnormal phenomenon before earthquakes in one area could take dozens, hundreds or even thousands of years.
“Earthquake forecasting remains a puzzle for the world,” said Zhang Xiaodong.
He explained that it is difficult to resolve this problem because it is almost impossible to access the inside of the earth, with still limited drilling capacity. The reason and development of earthquake is a very complicated process, and it varies in different geological structures at different times.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8176638.htm
My heartquake for your people.
some pics are bloody,if you cant endure it,don't click the link.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/14/china.vause/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
No time to review the previous pages,not sure if below info is published or not.
One man named Chen Guangbiao from Nanjing(Capital of Jiangsu,the same position of OH/IN/WV) organized a team with 60 grabs(not sure it’s accurate or not,the machine(rooter) could dig) to go to Wenchuan for rescue,and arrived in 36hours. He also brought 200 cash of thousand and a check of 2 million.He also donated another 6.5 million.
He was also touched me! A man!
http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/help/1/114901.shtml
Latest news from CRI at 7:00pm on May.15
China red-cross received 624 million till now.
China Ministry delivered another 200 million for rescue.Before is 500 million & 350 million.
Also much donations are received from other brother governments,citizen/companies/foreign donations,etc
Hello everyone, I was born in China, studied in the States, living in Korea. I see a lot of misunderstandings between Americans here and Chinese new comers, hopefully I can help a bit.
- Cheers.
[img]http://img1.tianya.cn/photo/2008/5/15/7969312_16648781.jpg[/img]
Today’s key words from Our honorific premier Wen Jiabao are” Lives,Rescue,Efforts”.
“If there is 1/100 hope ,we must contribute 100/100 efforts to rescue...”
He said in a raucous and raring voice.
Hello Kung,
Where are you from? I am a little confused,i mean nationality.
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