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."
是的，在這個國家（美國）這是很重要的表達自己的意見。這是一件好事！但請記住，必須非常小心，因為你生活在一個國家（中國人民共和國）您可能會處於危險之中，如果你以往任何時候都表達了錯誤的意見。我們想知道什麼，你真的覺得，但我們不想讓你得到的麻煩，與貴國政府。理查德基爾將無法幫助您，因為中國政府不喜歡他。She's a rent-a-mob. Too many disclosures about how she's a "young girl who never thought of politics before" and how "she's been to tibet and tibet people were happy and nice". "She" probably has a set of talking points and an identity. It's probably around 4pm on a Thursday in China, which makes me believe that she's being paid/assigned to talk to us. No school person would *ever* be blabbing on a message board at that time.
please tell me ?
why i am fearsome.
and what is mine fearsome
I don’t think she would know anything about it. I’m sure it wasn’t in their news. She is one of 1.3 billion people there. The factory probably only employs a few hundred. I know it makes you mad but do you take blame for Ford Pintos blowing up?
Ketsu...She never told you why our pets got sick & some died or about the toys?Nope. She's got a set of political talking points. You might as well be talking to a bot. She probably has a set of talking points that she translates bits of for us when she "answers" our questions.See TE Sassy is 100% correct in her boycott. Smart daughter I have & smart niece you have!!!! I will let her read this thread before school....
You are Chinese. That is fearsome to Tibetans. Many Tibetans have been tortured and killed for no reason by Chinese soldiers. Many Tibetan people have been killed. About two million or more since 1950.
Good ....So I am evil hmmmm? You aint seen nothing honey. You ought to meet me in person . I still say you are dog killers. Thats evil. I think you are a Chicom. If theres evil its in you. I pray to God & who do you pray too? Big Brother? Get lost & have a very nice day! Think Karma & freeing the people of Tibet!!!! Free Tibet evil ones!
I see. Most of the new Chinese FReepers came only to thank us for caring about their tragedy. This one does seem to want to push the politics in spite of her claim not to. Yes, I translated one of her Chinese posts and saw that. I didn’t know Google had a translator either. : )Yeah, the rent a mob thing is new to me. Very interesting. I wish they had more leeway, but they're obviously paid to stay on message.
LOL... we should be less worried about China and more about google. We'll probably be speaking googlese in a few years. Google translate is the most awesome thing ever though. Now I know when I'm being sworn at in Chinese and Spanish.
They used to send better agents that could speak English on their own. I guess the Hu Jintao clique is falling on hard times.
LOL I can’t speak Spanish conversationally but I know when I’m being cursed in it without a translator.
AS for Ford I take blame in not being able to do a thing about it. Now I would be yelling like mad & you know that.
They used to send better agents that could speak English on their own. I guess the Hu Jintao clique is falling on hard times.My guess is that it's part of the "clean up" with the olympics coming up so they need a ton of bodies. The thought that they'd actually have the gall/foolishness to come here has to say something.
Well you’re an evil American who sends faulty Pintos to foreign countries to blow up innocent people. ;^)
do you know,ever country have right and wrong people ,
war will give calamity.
please check you’s country,you’s history,havn’t war????????
i can’t beleive this ,
every country happened war?
so ,you blame other country,please frist analyzed yourself
if you country have jail.so you;s country have terroristic!
Is that the best you can do? lmao! I’m telling the Brat on you....ha she will read it for herself. She will get a kick out of this. I am going to wake her early & let her email you....
And if I am evil tell me why you people steal prisoner’s organs..That is EVIL. Body parts stealer! FREE TIBET!!!
Nice to meet you Ketsu....I say this one is a chicom & an evil one too. Or its her job. Take care..Pandora
When you worry about what a retired carpenter in the Rocky Mountains is saying about your country halfway around the world you've got some real psychological problems.
You are calling peaceful Tibetans that the Chinese came and killed for their land terrorists? You are sick.
YOU FORGOT EVIL!!
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