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."
W did today. I think 500K must be the threshold aid where Congress has to approve it?
Looks like China won’t be invading Taiwan this month.
yes, we had a damn war 56 years ago, with 500,000+ Chinese soldiers dead
but it was the fault of two stupid goverbments, not the people of two nations, the soldiers of both sides are human beings, not robots or wood...
invading?
not invasion, it’s reunion, the same as the Civil War in U.S. in 1861~1865
pl read more about Chinese history from real history
do not like CNN
For how many of the past 200 years has Taiwan been under the direct political control of Beijing?
Well I can think of one stupid government that starved 50 million of its own people to death in about 1960 something.I can think of one stupid, treasonous president that sold missile technology to another stupid government that now aims its missiles at the United States, but doesn’t have a reason to.You only aim nuclear missiles at someone you want to be ready to kill over a small island that was never really your own.I can think of one stupid government that kills girl babies by law ,to the point it will have to use the 19 million left over men as cannon fodder.I can think of one stupid government that keeps a dog like North Korea on a leash, but not so tight as to let them try to destroy the middle east with nuclear weapons in the hands of dictators and terrorist states.
A government is made by the people and for the people it represents. Governments do not happen by dragon bone magic.
You read history then
Reunion of United States 1861-1865
618,222 causalities in the “reunion” , thats kinda funny in a morbid way, you make joke then yes?
do you know about history for chinese!!!!
taiwan is indispensability at chinese domain!!!!!
No, Taiwan is under the US’ nuclear umbrella.
You can verify this at the United Nations database.
Get out of Tibet too.
Chinese government cannot be trusted, ever!!!
wrong
The tectonic plate that Tibet (and the Himalayans) sits on is moving northeast and into the China plate. Some sort of cosmic message there perhaps.
It is too bad that threads where we try to get some information, and perhaps even share in the Chinese people's grief and pain, are so infused with the propaganda fed to the Chinese. Some of the posts on the other threads look like they could be written by some official in the party rather than some 15 year old kid. Things like “we can disagree, but chaos and loose control are not good for anybody”. I sort of hope it is some “higher up” than some poor deluded 15 year old. One of my other favorites was something like “we find more important to have wealth than some ideology”. Just like in Myanmar, I always hope that the people will rise up against their governments. And not just because of delays, etc. which of course happen when roads, railways, etc. are wiped out. But when they see the thievery, poor construction in their buildings and infrastructure, etc. But - it doesn't seem to be. Looks the commies in China still have a pretty good grip on things and their indoctrination methods are solid. All of that said, my prayers for the many millions of people affected by this disaster. Although the death toll will be in the 10's or 100's of thousands, the injured, homeless and affected will be millions.
macroscopical.taiwan and Tibet is chinese domain.
This is a massive tragedy that we'll have to witness, crying, for many months.
So far I find most of these new sign ups, since last night, seem to be what they say they are. The unusual statements are partly due to different cultural poetics and the fact that they are struggling to translate into English IMO. Having fought (on FR) with real ChiCom agents for some time I see a difference. So far.
Wrong.
Taiwan is under our protection.
do you know about history for chinese!!!!Fair enough. The Japanese thought manchuria and taiwan were indispensable too. Should we let them take them back?taiwan is indispensability at chinese domain!!!!!
when Tibet is very uncultured and needy,
who is say:” Tibet autocephaly ?”
who answer me?
your are not see chinese government,how is help tibet!!!
when tibet ,havn’t school.foodstuff,railroad ,road......
everyone is savage......
now ,everyone know Tibet is beautiful .
please your are think:”who is change rude;s tibet!!!
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