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."
please tell me ,who steal prisoner’s organs,
who will ensure ,havn;t baddie in ecvery country!!
answer me !
which country!
you are only to know : blame another ,and i see all complain in you.
when are you blame youself!!!!!
You are right. This is the script. Now it is the Tibetans fault and look at your evil history. Same template that I have seen a dozen times only poorly done. A propaganda bot.
Hebe geebee you kill prisoners & sell their organs! You have AIDS too all over China. You big time liar. You get karma on you . hahahaha! You one evil hebe now go away! Prayers for the people of Tibet & FREE TIBET!!!
We don’t steal organs from prisoners. The Chinese do and you have been caught doing it.
terrorists?
chinese havn’t this!!!!
you are disparager.
god see our,
i beleive it!
CHINA thats who! You kill prisoner’s & sell their organs. you kill female babies ...You are PURE EVIL CHICOM.
look likes you are very hate me?
haha ,i am very happy this!
ok ,i don;t want waste time for you.
beacause you are unworthy.
i beleive ,got know who is right or wrong!!!
bye bye hebe FREE TIBET!!!! FREE TIBET!!!!
i can’t curse you ,
but i think i am very goodness
you are fool,havn’t moral.i pity you ,
usa dog,pig.
please remember,this is i give you word.
i am not kill every animaland people.
actually,you’s country is terroristic country!
shit......
FREE TIBET impossible.
OH yes it will be free one day!!! Count on it chicom.
maybe you are envy for chinese !
hahaahah!!!
may i ask you are girl or boy ,and in USA?
Nice to meet you Ketsu....I say this one is a chicom & an evil one too. Or its her job. Take care..PandoraNice to meet you too. She's a Chicom for sure. She's either being forced to or paid for it.
CHINA thats who! You kill prisoner’s & sell their organs. you kill female babies ...You are PURE EVIL CHICOM.Don't get mad at it. That just validates it. Sow cognitive dissonance. Be civil, ask questions and see how it reacts. If you yell at it, it just responds with "you are jealous" and feels proud of itself for serving the fatherland. Pity is your best weapon.
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