Posted on 05/14/2008 4:29:09 PM PDT by blam
China earthquake: Exodus begins from Sichuan
By Richard Spencer in Hanwang Town, Sichuan Province
Last Updated: 11:05PM BST 14/05/2008
Tens of thousands of people have poured down from the mountainsides of Sichuan searching for food and water as rescuers evacuated towns where more than 40,000 people are dead, buried or missing. Rescue teams are digging through rubble, trying to reach survivors of a powerful earthquake in China.
Helicopters began to airlift residents out of the villages of Wenchuan county at the epicentre of the earthquake which struck China on Monday, while others walked for hours into the valleys and plains to the south and east. The county is still cut off from land-based relief by landslides.
But the exodus might yet be heading into more danger, with emergency workers attempting to plug gaps in two major dams.
The Zipingpu dam, above the city of Dujiangyan with its population of 600,000, was said at one stage to be in an "extremely dangerous state" with cracks more than four inches wide appearing in its face, though the water resources ministry later said on its website that it was stable for the time being.
Tulong dam, further north on the Min river, was said by officials to be near collapse, something which would have a knock-on effect on a series of dams and power stations further downstream.
Almost 400 dams altogether were said to have been affected by Monday's earthquake – the wet and mountainous province is criss-crossed by some of China's biggest and fastest-flowing rivers.
While some dams, like Zipingpu, are modern, others were built when construction standards were lower.
All day long, the 100,000 troops now assigned to the rescue effort grappled with the wreckage of major cities, towns and villages across a wide area.
There were some successes, including the rescue of a three-year-old girl in Beichuan, one of the worst-affected towns, and an eight-months pregnant woman trapped under an apartment block in Dujiangyan.
But by the evening the official death toll stood at nearly 15,000, with another 25,000 reported buried and more unaccounted for.
In Wenchuan, a paramilitary officer told local television that a third of houses had been destroyed and 90 per cent damaged.
Meanwhile, the survivors were starting to look ever more desperately for supplies, walking for hours out of their mountain villages to seek help.
"There is nothing left of my village," said Fu Yuanming, who had walked for 10 hours from Village Number 3 of Qingping district near the epicentre to Hanwang town. "We need help. Our people have nothing to eat, they have nothing to drink."
He said a landslide had blocked the river above the village, turning into a reservoir that was about to burst.
Along all the roads in the region, makeshift camps have been set up. Residents of the towns lined up patiently as fire engines served out buckets of water; in the villages, locals ran out into the road to forcibly stop trucks and beg for supplies of noodles and biscuits.
"Someone had better set up relief coordination, or the people will resort to robbery," said one man in the village of Wudu.
More than 10,000 people were crowded into the sports stadium in the city of Mianyang, Sichuan's second biggest city and an important base for China's high-tec industry. Many had walked from Beichuan.
Ralph Johnson, a British teacher who lives in the city and runs a pub there, said that almost a million people were now spending their days on the streets. That included the city's 800,000 population, many of whom were like him unable to return to their damaged flats, and thousands more refugees.
He was also waiting to hear news of the mountain primary school for which his regulars have raised funds, and which feeds a secondary school known to have collapsed with up to 1,000 dead.
"We have not heard anything from the school," he said.
A British embassy rapid response unit began work in the provincial capital Chengdu to help coordinate the search for tourists trapped in the region. Nineteen members of a Kuoni tour party that were on their way to the Wolong giant panda reserve near Wenchuan when the earthquake hit were still unaccounted for last night.
There were unconfirmed reports that a group of 50 tourists had been located at the reserve, and 12 Americans who had been missing spoke to Worldwide Fund for Nature officials by satellite phone.
But Sir William Ehrman, the British ambassador, told The Daily Telegraph that there had still been no contact with the British group.
"We are extremely concerned," he said. "We are trying all we can to locate those who are unaccounted for."
i said , i been to there!!!請不要生氣。不過，其他夫人想知道中國的感受中毒問題。美國人現在很害怕和憤怒在中國。他們覺得中國人不照顧，美國人得到的病假和死亡的中國產品。什麼是您認為呢？
此外，您真的期望西藏人民告訴你真相？中國有很大的權力。說錯誤的東西可以讓您被捕。您在中國現在呢？
You have been to Tibet? Is that true? Are you in the army? I do not think the PLA gets the most accurate impression of what most Tibetan people really think.
Thank you very much. One thing I will say I do like about China is their Great Wall. We need one.
Please don't talk about things you don't know about. And you don't. I know Tibetans who escaped. They get messages from Tibetans who are still in Tibet. Very few are happy at all. That is the ugly truth and you will have to accept that.
I worked there with Chinese dealers & I had to deal with Chinese gamblers. I tried very hard to be friendly to them too. All sorts of people gamble you know from Rock Stars to the homeless.....your point is? Why shouldn't I expect them to have manners? Not to be rude & have some common sense where they spit.Call my old fashioned, but I don't expect to meet the best ambassadors of a country in a Casino. IMO you have to be very selfish to be a gambler. Selfish enough to ignore the rules of the country you're visiting/living in.
Please don't talk about things you don't know about. And you don't. I know Tibetans who escaped. They get messages from Tibetans who are still in Tibet. Very few are happy at all. That is the ugly truth and you will have to accept thatShe thinks she knows. I'm sure she thought Tibetans were very nice and happy(slaves knew how to act nice and happy for Massah too).
HMMM I read books! I watch TV & I get my news here & wherever I darn well please. I have freedom to do that...Do you? I don’t live in fear & I feel bad you have to.
HMMM I read books! I watch TV & I get my news here & wherever I darn well please. I have freedom to do that...Do you? I don’t live in fear & I feel bad you have to.You don't live in fear if you really *love* big brother.
That is what I was going to say next. I’m sure the Tibetans act very nice to the Chinese. Fear does that and Tibetans have a view of the basic good (Buddha) nature in all people. (and all beings)
i am travel to Tibet
and i have more friends work in there~
I don't gamble & I was in guest relations & have worked a few different jobs years ago in a casino. All kinds of people go to Atlantic City. I have met very nice people from stars to royalty & none spit on rugs.I wasn't talking about *you* Pandora. I was talking about the kind of people I imagined would be a customer at a Casino.
Were there any *Chinese* royalty?
Well I sure don't love big bro & feel badly for those who DO!
NO! ;^)
so ,you are not saw it!
,so you are not clamorous
我只是很惊讶,有这么多人扭曲事实! 作为我们中国人,不管对哪个国家的人都是很公平的,从来不歧视别人! 美国人在我们中国,大家都是很礼貌的对待他们,是否这就造成他们随意的伤害我们! 我有很多的同学在西藏上班,他们都知道西藏不会独立的!很多西藏人民愿意出面在媒体上呼吁,感谢中国政府!您的權利，中國不歧視人的種族。但中國的政治歧視？如果一個藏族人說： “我希望西藏要自由” ，會發生什麼事給他們？
It would make me very happy to have one & I wouldn’t even mind if they came over & showed us how to build it either. Since I no longer work in the casino if they help build it then they can spit away!
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