Oct
31
Pakistan official: Quake deaths likely to top 300
Filed Under Most Pepular, News, Pakistani News, World News | Leave a Comment
ZIARAT, Pakistan - Doctors said Friday they were running out of drugs and artificial limbs for victims of the earthquake in southwestern Pakistan amid fears that the death toll would climb beyond 300.The 6.4-magnitude quake hit a poor mountainous region near the Afghan border before dawn Wednesday. It destroyed 3,000 houses and made about 15,000 people homeless.
Troops and relief agencies have scrambled to help communities in remote valleys, from where provincial minister Zamrak Khan said reports of fatalities were still arriving.
Khan said the bodies of 215 people killed had been buried so far. However, he said reports from four badly hit districts indicated that others had been interred without informing authorities and that the real toll was “somewhere above 300.”
Authorities are distributing thousands of tents, blankets, coats and food packages to keep people alive as nighttime temperatures fall to the freezing point. Many in more distant valleys have already spent two nights without shelter and doctors said children were falling ill.
At a small clinic in the devastated village of Kawas, Dr. Nek Mohammed said he had treated 300 minors since Thursday and that he hoped medicine would arrive soon.
“Most of them are developing the symptoms of pneumonia and that is inevitable given the serious cold they are exposed to,” Mohammed said, as scores of people squatted outside waiting for a consultation.
Those seriously injured when their houses fell down around them have been taken to the regional capital, Quetta, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. Even there, doctors said they were stretched.
Zainullah Kakar of the city’s Bolan Medical College said it had 90 trauma patients.
“We are running short of antibiotics and other drugs. We need artificial limbs. We need metal plates and rods to treat broken arms and legs,” Kakar said.
The relief effort for the survivors began in earnest on Thursday. There is concern that the tents delivered so far will prove too light to keep people going through the impending winter, when much of the affected area will be covered in snow.
In Wam Kotal, a village in the shadow of a towering mountain, one family decided that they would be fools to wait.
Haji Abdul Latif, a turbaned 60-year-old, watched as a son and a nephew began clearing the rubble of their house with the intention of rebuilding as soon as possible.
A can of pesticide used to keep insects off the area’s ubiquitous apple orchards was recovered and set aside.
“We have no option except to help ourselves. Snow will start falling soon and we have no place to live,” he said, dismissing the tent where 10 of his family members crammed in to sleep.
The need for shelter has been swelled by villagers too scared by frequent aftershocks to sleep in the houses spared by the earthquake.
Amjad Aziz, a 42-year-old teacher, said he was sleeping in his car while his wife and six children bedded down at night in a rented tent pitched near their house in Ziarat, the main town in the affected area.
“I know these are aftershocks and not new earthquakes, and I also know these tremors may continue for a while, but it is hard to convince children that they will be safe,” Aziz said.
A poorly managed aid effort in Baluchistan could add to anti-government sentiment as the country’s new leaders battle violence by Islamist extremists and try to fix mounting economic problems.
The affected area of Baluchistan province is inhabited mainly by Pashtuns, the same ethnic group from which the Taliban draws most of its strength. However, the region has been spared the level of militant violence seen in other tribal areas along the Afghan border.
Members of hard-line Islamist political parties and groups, including one listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, were among the first to aid quake victims.
The same groups helped out in the aftermath of a quake that killed 80,000 people in Kashmir and northern Pakistan in 2005, something analysts say gave them added legitimacy.
May
21
China warns over quake corruption
Filed Under BBC News, News | Leave a Comment
Chinese regulators have warned that relief efforts for the Sichuan earthquake must be transparent, and say any corruption will be punished.
The Communist Party’s anti-corruption commission said any action that hampered progress or wasted supplies would be swiftly dealt with.
Officials are working to get tents and supplies to the five million people made homeless by the 12 May earthquake.
The death toll currently stands at 40,075, with another 32,361 missing.
Almost 250,000 people have been injured.
Rescuers now hold out little hope of finding any more survivors.
On Tuesday, two people were pulled alive from collapsed buildings but on Wednesday there were no fresh reports of rescues.
‘Entirely dependent’
Both domestic and international aid has been flowing into the earthquake zone, with supply planes landing from countries including the US, Russia and Singapore.
But China says more tents are desperately needed to provide temporary shelter for families.
QUAKE STATISTICS
Up to Tuesday 20 May:
40,075 dead
247,645 injured
145 confirmed aftershocks above level 4, 23 above level 5, biggest 6.1
34,000 medical staff in quake zone
Nearly 280,000 tents, 480,000 quilts and 1.7 million jackets sent
6bn Chinese yuan ($860m, £440m) received in donations, from China and abroad
Drinking water for 7m people restored
Source: Chinese government
See a detailed map of quake zone
Sichuan tourist trail in ruins
Town mourns as search goes on
Bulldozers have been levelling ground so that more camps can be set up, reporters at the scene said.
In one tent city in Mianzhu, a 52-year-old man told the French news agency AFP that he had nothing.
“We don’t know where we’re going to find money to rebuild our village,” Ma Jingsuan said. “We’re entirely dependent on the government.”
On Tuesday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to send 250,000 temporary housing units to the region by the end of June, and one million within three months.
In a circular, the Communist Party’s graft watchdog told local agencies to deal “swiftly and severely” with any official corruption linked to relief work, Xinhua news agency reported.
The source, destination and quantity of relief supplies should be made public, it said, and police should crack down on any fraudulent collection of donations for earthquake victims.
There have already been reports of scam text messages calling for donations to help survivors.
In the earthquake zone, many residents whose homes are still standing have been sleeping outside because of continued fear of aftershocks.
Rain has also been falling, compounding their misery. On Tuesday, Mr Wen ordered patrols to constantly monitor all dams as the bad weather continued.
Thousands of residents have also been evacuated from an area in Qingchuan county where large cracks have appeared in the top of a mountain, Xinhua said.
May
20
Quake zone braces for aftershocks
Filed Under BBC News, News | Leave a Comment
CHENGDU, China (CNN) — Fleeting signs of hope surfaced in southwestern China Tuesday, eight days after a devastating earthquake laid waste to many parts of the region.
Too afraid to go inside, Chengu residents sleep outside on sidewalks Monday night.
more photos » Over a 14-hour period, rescue teams pulled two men from the rubble in Sichuan province — one from a mine in Qingchuna county and a second from a hydroelectric plant in Wenchuan county, state-run media reported. They had been buried for six days and 20 hours and seven days and 11 hours, respectively, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.
The rescues came as China paused to honor victims of the disaster and braced themselves for further aftershocks.
The Sichuan Seismological Bureau warned residents that a strong aftershock was likely to happen in the province, Xinhua reported.
The bureau said there was a bigger possibility of the aftershock between Monday and Tuesday as it warned local government and people to take precautions. Watch dramatic “You expect to see aftershocks following a major earthquake,” said Susan Potter, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, “but they become less frequent and smaller as time goes on.”
Potter said the USGS does not issue aftershock predictions.
Don’t Miss
Emotions pour into national mourning
China’s new disaster openness
Faces of dead wear mask of pain
Losses compounded by one-child policy
iReport: Your photos, videos
iReport.com: Send us your pictures, stories
Impact Your World
See how you can make a difference
State media showed people camping on the streets and in city squares after the government-issued aftershock warning.
China’s observance of the earthquake came exactly a week after the 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook the county’s southwest to its core — 2:28 p.m. Monday. The temblor killed at least 34,073 and injured another 245,109.
The observance erupted into a loud outpouring of emotion among thousands of people in Chengdu, a major city close to the quake’s epicenter and the capital of China’s Sichuan province. They ended three minutes of silent observance with cries of grief and shouts of support for the recovery effort.The observance began three days of mourning in China, including a temporary suspension of the Olympic torch relay.
Strong aftershocks and fears of flash flooding and landslides hindered rescue efforts. Chinese seismologists measured a 5.4 magnitude tremor at 2:06 p.m. Monday, Xinhua reported.
Mud flows buried more than 200 relief workers who were working to repair damaged roads in the Sichuan province, Xinhua reported Monday afternoon.
The earthquake severely disrupted power and communication facilities in the Sichuan province, but Chinese officials said Monday they have made major progress in restoring service.
The electricity production and distribution has been returned to a level about 80 percent of what it was before the quake, although the four hardest hit counties closest to the epicenter are still without power, an official said.
Telecommunication services have been restored to 76 of the 109 townships in the province, another official said.
Workers battled landslides and other barriers to carry fiber communications equipment on foot to restore communications, the official said.
So far, almost 60 aid organizations from 13 countries were assisting in the aftermath of the quake. Among the countries are India, France, Singapore, the Philippines and the United States.
The quake was the worst tremor to strike China in three decades; a 1976 earthquake killed more than 250,000 people.
May
20
Warning panics China quake zone
Filed Under BBC News, Most Pepular, Opinion, World News | Leave a Comment
Tens of thousands of people in China’s quake-hit Sichuan province have rushed from their homes after a government warning of a possible major aftershock.
People slept on the streets or drove to open ground after the warning was broadcast on television.
The 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit on 12 May left over 71,000 people dead, buried or missing. On Monday, three days of mourning for the victims began.
Early on Tuesday, one more survivor was pulled from a collapsed building.
A 31-year-old man was rescued from the rubble of a hydro-electric plant in Yingxiu, near the quake’s epicentre, after being trapped for nearly 179 hours, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Advertisement
Man pulled alive from collapsed building eight days after quake
Such success stories are increasingly rare as rescue workers turn to the recovery of bodies from the rubble and to helping the millions of people made homeless by the disaster.
The government says 34,073 are known to have died so far and the figure is expected to rise much higher.
Multiple aftershocks
On Monday, a statement from the National Seismology Bureau was read out on television, triggering the panic.
In pictures: China mourns
Town mourns as search goes on
Uncertain times for survivors
Silent tribute: Your comments
People in cities across the quake-hit area rushed out of their homes carrying pillows and blankets.
Roads out of Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, were jammed as people headed for the open ground of the province’s agricultural plains.
The US Geological Survey reported an aftershock of magnitude 5.2 in the region on Monday night.
Government seismologists appeared on television on Tuesday, trying to calm people’s fears.
“Just because you can feel aftershocks, it doesn’t mean they will hurt you,” said Han Weiding, a researcher with the local seismological bureau.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean you should stand in harm’s way,” Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.
It is not the first panic to hit the earthquake-weary residents of Sichuan.
The entire population of the city of Beichuan, close to the epicentre, rushed for high ground on Saturday amid fears that it could be engulfed by a river bursting its banks.
Dozens of aftershocks have rattled the area, the strongest has measured 6.1.
Chinese media said mudslides have buried 200 relief workers in the past three days.
Tents needed
On Monday at 1428 local time (0628 GMT), people across the country fell silent for three minutes as air-raid sirens wailed and car horns honked.
All public entertainment has been cancelled and presenters on state television are wearing black. The Olympic torch relay has been suspended for three days and flags are flying at half-mast.
In addition to those dead or buried, more than 220,000 people were injured in the quake.
QUAKE STATISTICS
Up to Monday 19 May:
34,073 dead
9,509 buried and 29,418 missing in Sichuan province
220,109 injured
145 aftershocks above level 4, 23 above level 5, biggest 6.1
34,000 medical staff in quake zone
181,460 tents, 220,000 quilts despatched
6bn Chinese yuan ($860m, £440m) received in donations, from China and abroad
Drinking water for 7m people restored
Source: Chinese government
In pictures: Beichuan evacuation
See a detailed map of quake zone
The quake was centred in the mountains north-west of Chengdu.
Nick Mackie was one of the first foreign journalists to reach the Yinchangguo region, close to the epicentre.
He says the popular tourist region was devastated first by the earthquake and then by massive landslides that swept away villages and buried hotels, guest houses and farmers’ home stays.
An unknown number of villagers and tourists lie under the rocks and mud, he says.
Although across the region a few survivors are still being pulled from beneath collapsed buildings, the rescue effort has now focused on providing food, shelter and drinking water for the millions of people affected by the earthquake.
The foreign ministry appealed on Monday to the international community to provide tents for the more than 4.5m people whose homes have been destroyed.
To help raise money for the long-term relief effort, the government is to sell special stamps starting next month. Thirteen million of the stamps, featuring three interlocking hearts on a red background, will be sold, potentially raising as much as $4m (£2m).
The government said $1.5bn had been donated for disaster relief.
Persistent rain is compounding the misery for the homeless.
And the weather may deteriorate, with rains turning torrential later in the week, potentially triggering more landslides, Chinese forecasters said.
May
19
In Chinese town, quake shakes faith in school construction
Filed Under CNN News, News, Top Stories, World News | Leave a Comment
WUFU, China (CNN) — The first thing you notice about this small town in China’s quake-devastated Sichuan province is that every building is standing except one: the primary school.
Bi Kaiwei rushed to his daughter’s school, digging with his hands, desparately trying to find her.
1 of 2more photos » As many as 200 children were killed here, crushed to death when three stories of concrete came crashing down.
At the school gates, some parents have left their children’s identifications cards as a sort of makeshift memorial. Others still cling to them, like Bi Kaiwei.
When the major earthquake struck a week ago, Bi came rushing from the nearby factory where he worked and started digging with his bare hands.
“We tried to save as many children as we could,” Bi said, still holding his daughter’s school ID photo. “But these concrete slabs were too heavy, we couldn’t move them.”
Five hours later, he found the body of his little girl, Yuexin, near the building’s only exit.
“They were so innocent,” he said.
Standing next to him, his wife, Liu Xiaoying, held another photo of Yuexin. The 13-year-old girl, sporting a long ponytail and a red-and-white-striped shirt, smiles broadly in the photo as she holds the brim of her red cap between two fingers. Watch a report from Wufu’s devastated school »
“The scene was like a slaughterhouse,” Liu said between tears. Her husband, with his arm around her, looked away at the rubble of the school behind them.
“The children were in piles, they were all bodies.”
Don’t Miss
One villager’s lament: ‘I have lost everything’
China to mourn quake victims as toll mounts
Millions left homeless by China quake
Impact Your World
See how you can make a difference
A few miles away, a government building stands virtually untouched by last Monday’s massive temblor.
Bi and his wife are among a group of parents who believe their children were killed by a building made of cheap, shoddy materials that rendered the school a virtual death trap.
“If this was a decent building, my daughter wouldn’t have died,” said Li Yan, holding a handful of dusty rubble.
Thin, bendable wire is the only evidence of rebar, the material that holds concrete structures together. Generally speaking, the less steel in a concrete building, the less strength it has to withstand movement.
Brian Tucker, a seismologist with the California nonprofit Geohazards International, said a civil engineer in China told him that the country has no centralized, uniform code for earthquake-resistant public buildings such as schools or hospitals. The size of the fallen beams and columns pictured in video of the disaster appear inadequate to the task, he said.
“Some of the columns that are broken have exposed rebar that is not tied together essentially with horizontal bands, which makes sure the rebar stays attached to each other and to the concrete,” Tucker said.
Reginald DesRoches, a civil engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said the collapse of schools was surprising, since they typically are built to tougher standards.
But he said many of the buildings that fell were built before 1976, when an earthquake that killed 250,000 people spurred Chinese authorities to require earthquake-resistant construction for many buildings.
According to China’s state-run media, government officials have promised to find out why nearly 7,000 school buildings collapsed during last Monday’s earthquake, which measured between 7.9 and 8.0 in magnitude.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Friday that, based on what he has heard, the quality of construction in the earthquake zone exceeded the nation’s building standards for southwestern China, given the strength of the hit.
However, Wang Baodong added that “relevant investigations will be conducted at the appropriate time.”
Wrenching scenes of survivors being dug out of collapsed schools and apartments after the May 12 earthquake suggest widespread disregard for building codes in the rapidly urbanizing region, according to several civil engineers who spoke to CNN.
Unlike a 1999 earthquake in Turkey, where allegations of widespread corruption in the country’s building industry followed an earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people, one British engineer said nothing he’s seen of the Chinese disaster suggests corruption.
“But it would suggest that the people who’ve actually built these buildings, maybe paid for them, haven’t been able to afford the highest standards, the best materials, the latest designs,” said Tom Foulkes, the director-general of Britain’s Institute of Civil Engineers.
The quake also damaged a major dam near the city of Dujiangyan, but an investigation revealed that the dam is stable and safe, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported last week.
Foulkes said China’s major dams are well-designed.
“I think the real danger will be from hundreds, maybe thousands, of smaller dams, some of them possibly very ancient, which have never experienced this sort of shock before,” he said.
Tucker, with California-based Geohazards International, said China’s earthquake danger zones are “very diffused,” compared with the United States, where fault zones tend to run in narrow bands.
“The growth in some of these cities is so fast, it would be no mean feat to keep up with it,” he said.
He said school safety was a special concern of his organization. California authorities have closely monitored the construction of schools since a 1933 earthquake in Long Beach killed more than 100 people, many struck by falling debris as they ran out of shaking buildings. Earthquake-resistant buildings there cost about 4 percent more to design and build than other structures, he said.
“It’s not rocket science, but it is something that needs some attention,” he said
Source
May
18
China praises world’s quake aid
Filed Under BBC News, News | Leave a Comment
Chinese President Hu Jintao has voiced his gratitude for the international aid following Monday’s massive earthquake.
“I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments and international friends,” Mr Hu was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Offers of help in the relief effort from home and abroad have now surpassed $800m, Chinese officials say.
The number of confirmed deaths of the quake in the south-western Sichuan province has now risen to 28,881.
More than 10,600 people are believed to be still trapped, Xinhua said, citing regional officials.
The final death toll following the 7.9-magnitude quake is expected to reach at least 50,000 people, Chinese officials estimate.
Aftershocks
Rescue efforts resumed in Beichuan, after the entire city was evacuated amid fears that it could be engulfed by a river bursting its banks.
QUAKE STATISTICS
Up to Saturday 17 May:
28,881 dead
198,347 injured
145 aftershocks above level 4, 23 above level 5, biggest 6.1
34,000 medical staff in quake zone
181,460 tents, 220,000 quilts despatched
6bn Chinese yuan ($860m, £440m) received in donations, from China and abroad
Drinking water for 7m people restored
Source: Chinese government
In pictures: Beichuan evacuation
See a detailed map of quake zone
The city - that lies near the epicentre of the quake - was reduced to ruins.
But the search was halted on Saturday as rumours of a flood saw a stampede of people fleeing to higher ground.
Several people were dug out of the rubble on Saturday, including a 31-year-old woman in Deyang city, and a 33-year-old miner in Shifang, both about 124 hours after being buried.
The region shuddered again as a strong aftershock - measured by the US Geological Survey at 6.0 - struck at 0108 Sunday local time (1508 GMT Saturday).
There have been hundreds of aftershocks since Monday’s quake, some causing landslides which have made conditions even more difficult.
Mass graves
The Chinese government has organised a massive search and rescue effort. It released figures on Saturday demonstrating the scale of the operation.
Advertisement
A woman found under the rubble some 124 hours after the quake
It said 198,347 people had been recorded injured, not just in Sichuan, but in Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hubei, Henan, and Guizhou provinces.
It said some 181,460 tents, 220,000 quilts, and 170,000 cotton-padded garments had been despatched to the disaster area.
Rescue teams from South Korea, Singapore and Russia have joined Japanese and Taiwanese experts taking part in the massive search.
Uncertain times for survivors
Dams pose flooding risk
Life in tent city
The specialist teams are equipped with sniffer dogs, and fibre-optic cameras and heat sensors to detect people buried under the rubble.
But experts say the chances of finding people alive are diminishing, and increasingly it is dead bodies which are being retrieved.
The authorities have resorted to burying the bodies in mass graves in an effort to prevent disease.
People in the quake zone are being told to wear face masks and disinfectant teams are out in force.
——————————————————————————–
Are you in the area affected by the earthquake? What are the conditions? Is aid coming through? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC you can do so using the form below or text your experiences to: +44 7624 800 100
You can send pictures and video to:
yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to +44 7725 100 100
If you have a large file you can upload here.
Click here to see terms and conditions.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
Source
May
16
Chinese leader visits quake area
Filed Under BBC News, News, Top Stories | Leave a Comment
Chinese President Hu Jintao has flown to south-western Sichuan Province, where it is feared up to 50,000 people may have died in Monday’s earthquake.
So far almost 20,000 deaths have been confirmed in the region and thousands more people remain missing.
Mr Hu said rescue work had entered its “most crucial phase”, Xinhua news agency reported.
Search teams are still combing through the rubble of houses and buildings as hopes of finding more survivors fade.
“The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing,” said Mr Hu.
“We must make every effort, race against time and overcome all difficulties to achieve the final victory of the relief efforts.”
He was speaking after arriving in Mianyang, one of the worst-hit cities in the 7.9-magnitude earthquake, where he was to view the relief efforts and meet troops and medical personnel.
The president’s presence in the region appears to reflect the level of government concern over the scale of the disaster.
‘Top priority’
The first foreign rescuers have now arrived in the devastated region.
Advertisement
Rescue teams pull woman from rubble of collapsed building
Thirty-one Japanese experts arrived on Friday morning, state media said, and a second team with sniffer dogs was due there later in the day.
Russia, South Korea and Singapore are also sending teams to help in the rescue effort.
Troops have now reached all of the affected areas, state media says, and 60,000 people trapped or injured by the earthquake have received help.
See a detailed map of quake zone
In pictures: Quake recovery
Dams pose flooding risk
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the area since the earthquake struck, said the focus remained on getting to survivors.
“Saving lives is still our top priority, as long as hope of survival still exists,” he said.
But the task remains huge.
Seven schools, including two nursery schools, collapsed in the town of Mianzhu alone, burying more than 1,700 students.
In Hanwang town, about 700 students were buried when Donqi middle school collapsed.
The BBC’s James Reynolds in Hanwang described seeing rescuers emerge from a building carrying two bodies, and watching parents wait at the school, hoping their children would come out alive.
China has announced an investigation into why many schools collapsed.
Disease fears
More than 200,000 houses have collapsed in Sichuan province, while more than four million have been damaged in some way, Xinhua said.
In Mianzhu, one of the worst-hit towns, one woman said looking after the survivors should now be a priority.
RECENT CHINA QUAKES
March, 2008: 7.2 quake in Xinjiang - damage limited
February 2003: 6.8 quake in Xinjiang - at least 94 dead, 200 hurt
January 1998: 6.2 quake in rural Hebei - at least 47 dead, 2,000 hurt
April 1997: 6.6 quake hits Xinjiang - 9 dead, 60 hurt
January 1997: 6.4 quake in Xinjiang - 50 dead, 40 hurt
Send us your comments
Life in tent city
How earthquakes happen
“The focus is on saving lives, and they say food and a place to live are small issues as long as you’re alive,” Fan Xiaohua told Reuters news agency.
“In fact, they are very big issues right now,” she said.
Tens of thousands of Chinese troops and police are in the region to help with relief efforts but damage to roads is making it difficult to get to the worst-hit regions.
Some soldiers have parachuted into the remotest areas, and essential supplies have been dropped from planes.
But local people say food, medical supplies and tents are desperately needed.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has issued an emergency appeal for medical help, food, water and tents.
Source
May
15
MIENYANG, China (CNN) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday ordered 90 more helicopters for rescue missions in Sichuan province, adding urgency to the massive relief operations under way since Monday’s devastating earthquake.
Rescuers carry the injured from the quake-stricken town of Yingxiu Wednesday in Sichuan province.
1 of 3more photos » As mudslides, debris and fallen rocks blocked rescuers and aid workers from China’s quake-hit areas, Wen ordered 90 more helicopters to the region, Xinhua reported.
Since the 7.9-magnitude quake struck Monday, China has dispatched 20 choppers for dropping food and water, transporting the injured and delivering rescuers, Xinhua reported. Thursday’s order brings the total to 110.
Rescuers continued their attempts to save those trapped beneath the rubble at schools, businesses and homes.
Aftershocks at times forced rescuers to turn away from the fallen buildings, leaving crowds frustrated without knowing the fate of loved ones. Video from one disaster scene shows a woman clinging to a crane after rescuers suspended a mission at a crumbled building, deeming the site to dangerous to enter.
But there were scattered stories of survival. A 3-year-old girl was rescued from beneath a toppled building in Sichuan’s Beichuan County on Thursday, Xinhua said. Photos of the rescue showed the girl sustained a leg injury, but was otherwise alert.
A frightened seventh-grade girl was pulled safely from the rubble of a school dormitory Wednesday evening — 50 hours after she was buried by Monday’s earthquake, state-run media said.
Don’t Miss
Pregnant woman survives two days under rubble
Quake victims ‘eat bitterness’
Ecotourists safe
China’s giant pandas survive quake
Blog: Quake zone qualms
iReport: Your photos, videos
iReport.com: Send us your pictures, stories
Impact Your World
See how you can make a difference
In a weak voice, the trapped girl called out to one of the rescuers, “uncle, save me, save me,” he said. “If anything (bad) had happened to her, the voice could haunt me for the rest of my life.”
More than 4.3 million homes collapsed or sustained damage, according to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, and the official death toll from the quake had reached 14,866 by Wednesday evening. But casualty figures from various cities indicate a higher number of dead.
The state-run Xinhua news agency has provided death tolls for eight communities in Sichuan province that add up to nearly 20,000, including roughly 7,700 who perished in the town of Yingxiu, near the earthquake’s epicenter. CNN cannot independently confirm the tallies.
The girl rescued at Muyu Middle School in Sichuan province was among 89 children pulled from the rubble alive. At least 201 students were killed when the building collapsed while many were napping, according to China.org. More than 100 children escaped from the school in Qingchuan County, and rescuers were searching for an unspecified number still believed to be trapped.
Wang Guangfen, a nurse, climbed under a cement slab to give the girl, He Cuiqing, medicine, while other rescuers carefully moved slabs until they could remove the girl.
“She appeared very fragile, and there were blood stains on her chest,” said China.org, quoting Wang. “But she was still conscious, and called me aunt when I reached her.”
Elsewhere in the stricken region, videotape showed a 3-year-old pulled out alive after more than 40 hours in rubble, and a pregnant woman safely rescued, as a small crowd cheered.
In other developments:
Video showed soldiers and relief teams swarmed over mountainsides and piles of debris in and near the epicenter of the quake in Sichuan province, looking for signs of life. Helicopters were flying overhead, some of them dropping food and other supplies.
Hours after 2,000 troops were dispatched to the Zipingpu dam upstream from the earthquake-hit Dujiangyan City, a probe revealed that the dam is stable and safe, Xinhua reported. It was not immediately clear what type of investigation was conducted. State-run media said earlier that the dam on Zipingpu Reservoir had “severe cracks.”
Twelve American eco-tourists who were thought to be missing Monday after the quake were able to contact their loved ones by cell phone to let them know they are alive, said an official with World Wildlife Fund, which sponsored the tour. But two Chinese WWF volunteers remain missing.
Fifteen British nationals have been reported missing near the panda preserve. “We have no reports so far of any casualties to British citizens, but we do remain very concerned about reports of some UK citizens being in the affected area,” said William Ehrman, British ambassador to China. “We are doing everything that we can to locate them.”
More than 30,000 people are “missing or out of reach” in Shifang, Xinhua reported. Citing local government, Xinhua said that the death toll in the city exceeded 2,500. Two chemical plants collapsed, trapping hundreds of people, Xinhua reported Monday. More than 80 tons of of ammonia leaked out, it said. A local official said there were no deaths. The news agency’s Wednesday report made no mention of the people it had said were trapped in the chemical plants.
Mianyang has become a massive refugee camp for survivors, Xinhua reported. Thousands of people uprooted around the region are taking shelter downtown at the city’s main sports gym and other facilities. Reports say 7,395 people have died and 18,645 are trapped in debris in the city. Among those trapped were about 1,000 students at a middle school
May
15
China airdrop for quake survivors
Filed Under BBC News, News, Top Stories | Leave a Comment
China is mobilising 30,000 extra troops and 90 more helicopters to help with the rescue operation after Monday’s devastating earthquake.
About 10 million people in Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9 quake that flattened entire villages, state media said.
Nearly 15,000 people are known to have been killed, and another 26,000 are still trapped in the rubble.
The extra troops will bring food and water, and help to rescue survivors.
We must use all our forces, and save lives at whatever costs
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
Survivors rally together
UK tourists ’safe’ in China
Anger over ’shoddy schools’
They will add to the efforts of almost 50,000 soldiers and police already despatched to the region to dig any remaining survivors out of the rubble and bring food, medicine and drinking water to those made homeless.
The Chinese government has appealed to the public to donate basic equipment to help in the rescue operation. It said hammers, cranes, shovels and rubber boats were urgently needed.
China’s air force, army aviation and civil aviation have carried out the largest non-combat air operation in the three days since the disaster, state news agency Xinhua said.
Elite troops have been parachuted in to isolated or cut off areas and officials say every affected county has now been reached and rescue efforts started.
The BBC’s Dan Griffiths in Dujiangyan says the relief operation is massive, but there is little chance of finding anyone else alive.
See a detailed map of quake zone
Troops were deployed to Zipingku dam, to repair cracks caused by the earth tremors. It has now been pronounced stable and safe, but there are concerns for almost 400 other dams in the area that may also have been damaged, he says.
Landslides
The Chinese military plans to conduct large-scale airdrops of food, clothing and blankets over the worst-hit areas, including the districts of Beichuan and Wenchuan.
The helicopters are needed because many of the roads in the mountainous area near the epicentre have been badly damaged by the earthquake or have been covered by landslides.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said: “We must use all our forces, and save lives at whatever costs.
Injured have been air-lifted from the quake-hit town of Yingxiu
“Life is the most precious thing.”
The relief effort has also been hampered by bad weather, while an aftershock was reported in Yingxiu, a town close to the quake’s epicentre where more than three-quarters of the 10,000 residents perished.
A local resident who had walked out of one of the isolated villages, Qingping, said half of the village’s population of 2,000 was injured, and survivors were in need of medicine and drinking water, Xinhua reported.
Few survivors
RECENT CHINA QUAKES
March, 2008: 7.2 quake in Xinjiang - damage limited
February 2003: 6.8 quake in Xinjiang - at least 94 dead, 200 hurt
January 1998: 6.2 quake in rural Hebei - at least 47 dead, 2,000 hurt
April 1997: 6.6 quake hits Xinjiang - 9 dead, 60 hurt
January 1997: 6.4 quake in Xinjiang - 50 dead, 40 hurt
How earthquakes happen
History of deadly earthquakes
The head of a police unit sent into the disaster zone said the losses had been severe.
“Some towns basically have no houses left,” Wang Yi told Sichuan Online news site. “They have all been razed to the ground.”
The official toll for the number of dead now stands at 14,866, Xinhua news agency reports.
It is three days since the earthquake hit and the number of survivors being rescued is dropping.
The head of China’s Seismological Bureau, Liu Yuchen, said 82 survivors had been dug out of debris on Wednesday, including a pregnant woman.
Rescuers took six hours to pull another person out, he said.
Tens of thousands of people made homeless are staying in tents and makeshift shelters that line the streets of ruined towns and villages.
In the town of Hanwang survivors were seen at the side of the road begging for food and water from passing cars, the Associated Press reported.
The Chinese government says it has allocated another 250m yuan ($35m) for aid, bringing its disaster spending to 1.11bn yuan.
Members of the public have also donated millions of yuan in both cash and goods.
Far from the earthquake zone in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, people have been giving blood and donating clothing.
Relief organisations in Taiwan are also sending two plane loads of relief materials and volunteers to south-west China.
Around 150 tonnes of goods - including tents, sleeping bags and blankets - are being sent in the first two cargo flights, donated by several Taiwanese religious and charity groups.
——————————————————————————–
Are you in the area affected by the earthquake? What are the conditions? Is aid coming through? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC you can do so using the form below or text your experiences to: +44 7624 800 100
You can send pictures and video to:
yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to +44 7725 100 100
If you have a large file you can upload here.
Click here to see terms and conditions.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
May
14
Soldiers press search for quake survivors
Filed Under CNN News, News | Leave a Comment
CNN) — China’s deadly earthquake killed more than 7,700 people in the town of Yingxiu — about three-quarters of everyone who lived there, state media reported.
A woman weeps Tuesday in front of rescuers in Mianyang, in China’s Sichuan province.
1 of 3more photos » The grim news about Yingxiu, a town in Sichuan province, came as rescuers struggled to reach some of the hardest-hit areas of southwestern China two days after a massive earthquake that has pushed the death toll so far to well above 12,000.
Rescuers found at least 500 dead in the Chinese district at the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake Tuesday, while heavy rain, collapsed bridges and damaged roads complicated efforts to get troops and aid workers to the worst-hit towns. The rain drove some people back inside homes even as more aftershocks rattled the region, witnesses reported.
The Monday afternoon quake’s epicenter was in the county of Wenchuan, Sichuan province, about 1,500 km (960 miles) southwest of Beijing.
The state-run news agency Xinhua reported the death toll at more than 12,100 before Tuesday’s latest reports, with more than 26,000 injured, 7,800 missing and more than 9,400 trapped beneath debris.
During a visit to a school in Shifang, where more than 100 children were trapped beneath rubble, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that saving lives was a top priority. Look at photos of China confronting the quake devastation »
“We will put our best efforts forward to save all those alive who can be saved,” he said. “This disaster has all tested us. We all have to band together and have confidence and push forward.”
Wen also visited a stadium in the city of Mianyang, where more than 10,000 earthquake victims have been temporarily resettled, Xinhua reported.
Don’t Miss
Hundreds of students still trapped in school
Eyewitness: ‘Floor was moving underneath me’
China’s giant pandas survive quake
iReport: Your photos, videos
iReport.com: Send us your pictures, stories
Impact Your World
See how you can make a difference
“The transportation of food must be faster,” the news agency quoted him as telling government officials. “Children are short of food.”
Hundreds of soldiers and disaster workers descended on Wenchuan, many of them digging by hand, according to the disaster relief headquarters of the Chengdu Military Area Command. Soldiers said only 3,000 of the town’s 12,000 residents survived the quake. Watch as dazed, bruised survivors battle the elements »
More than 70 percent of the town’s roads were damaged, and almost all bridges had collapsed, the soldiers reported.
China is no stranger to natural disasters: A 1976 earthquake here killed more than 250,000 people. But analysts said the Chinese response to Monday’s quake has been the most transparent of any disaster, with state media frequently updating casualty tolls and deploying troops rapidly to the worst-hit areas.
Gareth Leather, an analyst for The Economist magazine, said the communist government was criticized for its response to the 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002.
“The government was very secretive about it, which in turn allowed the disease the spread across China and Asia a lot quicker than it otherwise would have done,” Leather told CNN. “This time they have been very open about it, which I think is maybe showing signs that lessons have been learned.” Watch quake victims pulled out of rubble »
Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan, said about 3.5 million homes were destroyed in the province. David Jones, an English teacher in the city of Chengdu, said residents were camping out on riverbanks, in parking lots and other open spaces, despite “terrible” weather.
“People are doing everything they can to stay outside,” he said. “In a lot of cases, they can’t return to their buildings.”
He said survivors were lining up to donate blood and remained calm, though appeared “extremely tired.” Grief is spreading as the scope of the disaster is realized »
“The people here have been really helpful to each other, making sure everybody has supplies,” he said. “I haven’t seen any price-gouging. The mood here has gone from shock, fear, to tiredness.” Look at a photo wall of the destruction and rescue efforts »
Wenchuan is the refuge for much of China’s panda population, and the State Forestry Administration said the 67 captive pandas among the more than 130 pandas in the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve were unhurt. However, the pandas’ caregivers were worried about their bamboo leaf supply, their main source of food.
In other developments Tuesday:
U.S. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush had spoken with China’s President Hu Jintao in the morning. “He expressed his condolences on the earthquake and reiterated his offer to assist in any way possible,” she said.
China accepted a $500,000 U.S. contribution for relief efforts that will be given to the International Red Cross. The United States is “prepared to do more,” said Ky Luu, director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development, but China has not requested aid from the United States.
Zhen Yao Wang, a spokesman for China’s civil administration department, said China is thankful for international assistance, “and we will make efforts to ensure that these materials and money will reach the disaster hit area as early as possible.” Source: