900 students buried by China quake

[galeane29]

BEIJING - A powerful earthquake buried 900 students in central China on Monday and killed at least 107 people, as several schools and a water tower collapsed in the tremor, state media reported.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck central China, but sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported 107 people had died and 34 people were injured. Four children died when two elementary schools in Chongqing municipality collapsed. One person was killed when the quake toppled a water tower in neighboring Sichuan province where the earthquake was centered, Xinhua said.

Xinhua did not give any other details on the 900 buried students or say if any of the students were thought to be alive.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was headed to the epicenter and troops with China's People's Liberation Army were being dispatched to help with disaster relief, Xinhua reported.

The quake struck about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. and there were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system. The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.

"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," he said.

Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city's southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare. Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls but no collapses, Xinhua said.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August.

"I've lived in Taipei and California and I've been through quakes before. This is the most I've ever felt," said James McGregor, a business consultant who was inside the LG Towers in Beijing's business district. "The floor was moving underneath me."

In Fuyang, 660 miles to the east, chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed. "We've never felt anything like this our whole lives," said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.

Patients at the Fuyang People's No. 1 Hospital were evacuated. An hour after the quake, a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. One was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.

Closer to the epicenter in Chongqing, Lai Dequn was napping while her mother watched TV on the 19th floor of a hotel.

"I suddenly felt the bed shaking and then realized it must be an earthquake," said the 42-year-old Lai. "So I just put on slippers and helped my mother down to the ground floor."

In Shanghai, skyscrapers swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets.

The airport in the provincial capital, Chengdu, was closed and roads were clogged with traffic after the earthquake, state television reported.

In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast, buildings swayed when the quake hit. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

[freeby4me]

Wow how scary and horrible. I sure hope they find those students OK.

[Jolie Rouge]

Toll from China quake estimated at 3,000 to 5,000
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago

BEIJING - A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday and state media reported that as many as 5,000 people were killed in a single county while nearly 900 students were trapped under the rubble of their school.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the 7.8-magnitude quake.

Xinhua reported that 3,000 to 5,000 people had died in Beichuan, which has a population of 160,000, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply. Another 10,000 people were believed to be hurt.

The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.

Four of the dead were ninth-grade students killed when their high school collapsed, Xinhua said. Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school. Xinhua did not say how many of the students were feared dead.

It said its reporters in Juyuan township, about 60 miles from the epicenter, saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story building "while others were crying out for help."

Two girls were quoted by Xinhua as saying they escaped because they had "run faster than others."

The earthquake comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, when China hopes to use to showcase its rise in the world.

Shanghai's main index inched up Monday, but the advance was capped by worries over inflation and potential damage from the earthquake. Analysts said that shares of companies located in the Sichuan region may fall in coming sessions due to the quake.

It struck in the middle of the afternoon when classes and office towers were full, about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system. The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.

"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," he said.

Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city's southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare. Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls but no collapses, Xinhua said.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August. None of the Olympic venues was damaged.

"I've lived in Taipei and California and I've been through quakes before. This is the most I've ever felt," said James McGregor, a business consultant who was inside the LG Towers in Beijing's business district. "The floor was moving underneath me."

In Fuyang, 660 miles to the east, chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed. "We've never felt anything like this our whole lives," said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.

Patients at the Fuyang People's No. 1 Hospital were evacuated. An hour after the quake, a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. One was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.

Skyscrapers in Shanghai swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets.

In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast, buildings swayed when the quake hit. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake;_ylt=AsIHXhi08r1YeDDpn7mtXces0NUE

[Jenefer3]

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
updated 3 minutes ago
CHONGQING, China - A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 7,000 people in one province alone and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county and that another 10,000 people were believed hurt there.

The epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake was in Sichuan, striking 57 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. It hit in the middle of the afternoon — when classes and offices were full.

Xinhua, citing a provincial official, said the quake killed 7,651 people in Sichuan alone.

Thousands of soldiers and police have been dispatched to the epicenter in Wenchuan county, about 60 miles away from Beichuan, which has a population of 160,000.

In another area close to the epicenter, workers were struggling to dig out an estimated 900 students trapped when the Juyuan Middle School building collapsed. Photographs showed heavy cranes trying to move rubble from the ruined structure.

Xinhua said that rescuers had recovered at least 50 bodies from the debris of the school building. It did not say if any students had been pulled out alive. Xinhua said an unknown number of students were also reported buried after buildings collapsed at five other schools in Deyang city in Sichuan.

The earthquake comes fewer than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, which China hopes to use to showcase its rise in the world.

Xinhua said its reporters in Juyuan township about 60 miles from the epicenter in Wenchuan saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story school "while others were crying out for help."

Photos posted on the Internet and found on the Chinese search engine Baidu showed arms and a torso sticking out of the rubble of the school as dozens of people worked to free them, using small mechanical winches or their hands to move concrete slabs.

Another photo from Wenchuan showed what appeared to have been a six-story building flattened, ripped away from taller buildings of gray concrete.

Xinhua quoted the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying the 107 dead had been killed in Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces and in the municipality of Chongqing. It said many had died in collapsed buildings but did not give details.

More than 5,000 soldiers and police have been rushed into Sichuan to help in the disaster relief.

The airport in Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, was closed and roads were clogged with traffic after the earthquake, state television reported.

Rain was also predicted for the disaster area.

The quake struck 57 miles northwest of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. (0628 GMT), the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. It was centered about 6 miles below the surface. A series of smaller aftershocks followed.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system.

"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication switches have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," he said.

Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city's southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare. Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls but no collapses, Xinhua said.

State television broadcast tips for anyone trapped in the earthquake. "If you're buried, keep calm and conserve your energy.

Seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue," CCTV said.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing 930 miles to the north. The Chinese capital is expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors when the Olympics start on Aug. 8.

Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August. None of the Olympic venues were damaged.

Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Chengdu just before sunset to oversee rescue work.

"The Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council (Cabinet) have asked officials at all levels to be at the front line of the fighting the earthquake and lead the people in their rescue work," he told reporters on the way.

People ran screaming into the streets in other cities, where many residents said they had never been in an earthquake. In Fuyang, 660 miles to the east in Anhui province, chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed.

"We've never felt anything like this our whole lives," said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.

Patients at the Fuyang People's No. 1 Hospital were evacuated.

An hour after the quake, a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. One was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.

Closer to the epicenter in Chongqing, Lai Dequn was napping while her mother watched TV on the 19th floor of a hotel. "I suddenly felt the bed shaking and then realized it must be an earthquake," said the 42-year-old Lai. "So I just put on slippers and helped my mother down to the ground floor."

In Shanghai, skyscrapers swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets. The quake was also felt as far away as Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan.

Major event
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

[ahippiechic]

How awful!

[PrincessArky]

oh how very sad

[RNB16]

oh that is just terrible. First the Cyclone and now this. Makes you wonder what will happen next.

[flute]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake


Death toll in China quake exceeds 12,000
1 hour, 14 minutes ago

DUJIANGYAN, China - The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China's worst earthquake in three decades.


The official Xinhua News Agency said the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday's massive, 7.9-magnitude quake.

The Sichuan Daily newspaper reported on its Web site that more than 26,000 people were injured in Mianyang.

The numbers of casualties was expected to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

There was little prospect that many survivors would be found under the rubble. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed.

Rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission to the epicenter due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported.

More than two dozen British and American tourists who were thought to be panda-watching in the area also remained missing.

Officials urged the public not to abandon hope.

"Survivors can hold on for some time. Now it's not time to give up," Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told reporters in Beijing.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible. His visit to the disaster scene was prominently featured on state TV, a gesture meant to reassure people that the ruling party was doing all it could.

"We will save the people," Wen said through a bullhorn to survivors as he toured the disaster scene, in footage shown on CCTV. "As long as the people are there, factories can be built into even better ones, and so can the towns and counties."

State media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county — where the number of casualties was still unknown. The quake was centered just north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu in central China, tearing into urban areas and mountain villages.

Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings.

Some 20,000 soldiers and police arrived in the disaster area with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, trucks and even on foot, the Defense Ministry told Xinhua.

Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in Chengdu. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude 4 and 6, some of the strongest since Monday's quake.

Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.

"My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed," he said. "I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live."

Zhou and other survivors were pulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.

Just east of the epicenter, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county — a six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan alone.

At another leveled school in Dujiangyan, 900 students were feared dead. As bodies of teenagers were carried out on doors used as makeshift stretchers, relatives lit incense and candles and also set off fireworks to ward away evil spirits.

Elsewhere in Gansu province, a 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still burning Tuesday, Xinhua said.

Gasoline lines grew in Chengdu and grocery stores shelves were almost empty. The Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the quake victims.

Fifteen missing British tourists were believed to have been in the area at the time of the quake and were "out of reach," Xinhua reported.

They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said, adding that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.

Another group of 12 Americans also on panda-watching tour sponsored by the U.S. office of the World Wildlife Fund remained out of contact Tuesday, said Tan Rui, WWF communications officer in China.

Two Chinese-Americans and a Thai tourist also were missing in Sichuan province, the agency said, citing tourism officials.

Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and the European Union, among others.

The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicenter is just south of some Tibetan mountain areas that saw anti-government protests earlier this year.

Beijing Games organizers said the Olympic torch relay will continue as planned through the quake-affected area next month.

The Chinese government said it would welcome outside aid, and Russia was sending a plane with rescuers and supplies, the country's Interfax news agency reported.

But Wang, the disaster relief official, said international aid workers would not be allowed to travel to the affected area.

"We welcome funds and supplies; we can't accommodate personnel at this point," he said.

China's Ministry of Finance said it had allocated $123 million in aid for quake-hit areas.

The quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976. Financial analysts said the quake would have only a limited impact on the country's booming economy.

I'm crying because I was talking to a teacher the other day & she really believes the end of the world is near. I do wonder myself, after last week's cyclone & now China :(

[galeane29]

Mary, my husband tells me all the time, "the end of times is near''.
Its one natural disaster after the other killing thousands.
All the rapes, murders etc. Its gotten very scary.

[Jolie Rouge]

Mary, my husband tells me all the time, "the end of times is near''. Its one natural disaster after the other killing thousands.

Just look what has been post at BBS thru six week or so ...

Skeery ...



http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/583183-mid-atlantic-storm-cuts-power-prompts-evacuations.html 05/12/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/583004-least-11-dead-new-round-tornadoes.html 05/10/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582915-6-7-quake-jolts-guam-no-damage-injuries-reported.html 5/09/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582460-volcano-chile-spews-lava-blasts-ash-12-miles-into-sky.html 05/06/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582285-4-000-dead-3000-missing-3.html 05/05/08 ( Cat 4 Hurricane in Myanmar/Burma; close to 100,000 people are dead; a million homelss ... )

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582071-twisters-tear-up-parts-4-states-7-die-arkansas-everybody-here-okay.html 05/02/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581531-3-tornadoes-rip-through-va-hundreds-people-hurt.html 04/30/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581716-ca-earthquake.html ( 5.2 ) 4/29/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581117-series-minor-earthquakes-shakes-reno-no-major-damage.html http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581401-reno-urged-prepare-big-quake.html http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581132-reno-nv-has-earthquake.html month of April 2008

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/580282-earthquake-illinois.html http://www.bigbigforums.com/off-topic-chat/580279-earthquake-ky.html ( 5.4 Indiana/ Illinois/Kentucky/Michigan/Wisconsin ) 04/18/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/579561-powerful-7-1-quake-southern-pacific-ocean.html 04/12/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/579501-swarm-earthquakes-detected-off-oregon.html 04/11/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/547042-third-crack-found-hawaiis-kilauea.html 04/11/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/579345-storms-sweep-through-ark-okla-texas.html 04/11/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/578565-tornado-sweeps-through-little-rock.html 04/04/08


http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/572157-week-america-may-you-live-interesting-times.html

[galeane29]

Is it not eye opening? I loathed my husband always wanting to watch the news, because it was always bad news. I get online every day to see what is going on. Not that I like to hear these horrible things going on but that I just cant believe that it is going on. We are looking for some land to buy so we can be more self sufficiant. Everything in this world is going crazy and eventually the only ones we are going to be able to depend on is the person to your right and to your left.

[Jolie Rouge]

Today : http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/583312-another-twister-reported-tornado-damaged-missouri.html

[flute]

Just look what has been post at BBS thru six week or so ...

Skeery ...



http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/583183-mid-atlantic-storm-cuts-power-prompts-evacuations.html 05/12/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/583004-least-11-dead-new-round-tornadoes.html 05/10/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582915-6-7-quake-jolts-guam-no-damage-injuries-reported.html 5/09/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582460-volcano-chile-spews-lava-blasts-ash-12-miles-into-sky.html 05/06/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582285-4-000-dead-3000-missing-3.html 05/05/08 ( Cat 4 Hurricane in Myanmar/Burma; close to 100,000 people are dead; a million homelss ... )

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/582071-twisters-tear-up-parts-4-states-7-die-arkansas-everybody-here-okay.html 05/02/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581531-3-tornadoes-rip-through-va-hundreds-people-hurt.html 04/30/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581716-ca-earthquake.html ( 5.2 ) 4/29/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581117-series-minor-earthquakes-shakes-reno-no-major-damage.html http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581401-reno-urged-prepare-big-quake.html http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/581132-reno-nv-has-earthquake.html month of April 2008

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/580282-earthquake-illinois.html http://www.bigbigforums.com/off-topic-chat/580279-earthquake-ky.html ( 5.4 Indiana/ Illinois/Kentucky/Michigan/Wisconsin ) 04/18/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/579561-powerful-7-1-quake-southern-pacific-ocean.html 04/12/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/579501-swarm-earthquakes-detected-off-oregon.html 04/11/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/547042-third-crack-found-hawaiis-kilauea.html 04/11/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/579345-storms-sweep-through-ark-okla-texas.html 04/11/08

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/578565-tornado-sweeps-through-little-rock.html 04/04/08


http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/572157-week-america-may-you-live-interesting-times.html

Oh I don't think you need to convince anyone - Thanks for the links.
It IS eye opening!
It's terrifying!

[Jolie Rouge]

Why the China Quake Was So Devastating
Jeanna Bryner - Senior Writer LiveScience.com
2 hours, 1 minute ago


The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province, leveling buildings and taking tens of thousands of lives, might not have wrought such destruction in the United States, experts say.

Ground-shaking from the relatively shallow earthquake in China leveled entire villages, burying thousands of people beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, including 4 million homes reportedly shattered. The death toll exceeds 15,000 and could rise to 50,000.

Due to its intensity and relatively shallow origin - just 11.8 miles (19 km) below the surface - the China earthquake generated extremely powerful shaking felt as far away as Taiwan. Earthquake engineers speculate the adobe and masonry buildings and homes, many of which were probably not reinforced with steel as building codes dictate, added to the earthquake damage, especially in more rural areas.

LiveScience reported that an earthquake somewhat like China's on one of the faults in the Los Angeles area would be a "worst-case scenario," leading to extensive damage. Though extensive, engineers say the devastation would be much less than what occurred in China, due in part to better enforcement of building codes here. Yet they speculate that some buildings in the United States, such as warehouse-like structures and some Wal-Marts and Targets, may not be equipped to withstand intense ground-shaking.

West Coast cities have been vigilant about ensuring that buildings meet earthquake-safety codes, including retrofitting old homes and businesses. But in other parts of the country, where earthquakes can be powerful but rare, many buildings may not be prepared to hold up to powerful shaking, the engineers said.


Shake-proof buildings

Experts can't predict with any certainty the level of damage that would occur if a China-like earthquake were to hit the United States. However, they can make some speculations, based on the magnitude and ground-shaking. "You certainly wouldn't see the extent of damage you see here [in China]," said Reginald DesRoches, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech. "I'm pretty confident about that. You just wouldn't see the level of damage, because they do really enforce the regulations, particularly in California."

DesRoches said building codes in the United States and China dictate the minimum level of safety for constructed buildings with regard to natural disasters like earthquakes. The main factor that causes structures to collapse, and therefore they must be braced against it, is ground-shaking.

In one approach to doing this, engineers add steel to concrete or bricks. The steel makes a brittle structure that would easily snap if rattled into a ductile one that can effectively wave with the temblor's motion. "By adding steel to a structure that may be made of brick, you make the entire thing much more ductile," DesRoches told LiveScience. "That's how things should be built, and in fact the Chinese code specifies that. But the builders, to save money, just put the brick and didn't add the appropriate amount of steel, if any at all."

In parts of California near the San Andreas Fault, DesRoches says, modern structures are designed to withstand ground-shaking levels comparable to those felt in the Sichuan province. Over the past two decades or so, he says, older buildings in California have been rehabilitated to meet current safety standards. "China didn't get an adequate seismic design code until following the big earthquake they had in 1976," DesRoches said. "If the buildings were older and built prior to that [1976 earthquake], chances are they weren't built for adequate earthquake forces."

Particularly the poorer, rural villages in China were hardest hit this week, according to news reports, highlighting a gap in building-code oversight that's related to economics. "The earthquake occurred in the rural part of China," said Swaminathan Krishnan, assistant professor of civil engineering and geophysics at Caltech. "Presumably, many of the buildings were just built; they were not designed, so to speak."

Krishnan added, "There are very strong building codes in China, which take care of earthquake issues and seismic design issues. But many of these buildings presumably were quite old and probably were not built with any regulations overseeing them."


Seismic structures

In 2007, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) updated its seismic hazard map, which pinpoints areas vulnerable to earthquakes and the amount of ground-shaking that could occur. The maps also set building codes corresponding to the potential level of shaking.

Even so, earthquake engineers and seismologists are concerned about certain types of structures that could be vulnerable to major earthquakes.

Brick buildings without steel reinforcements would be considered the most vulnerable to collapse during ground-shaking, Krishnan said. "Now we can confidently say there are no un-reinforced masonry buildings in southern California."

However, some warehouses and other structures made out of concrete with little steel for flexing could collapse in a quake like the one that hit China. "The next most risky buildings are these non-ductile concrete buildings. I hate to say it's similar to the Chinese situation, but it could be; we don't know exactly how bad these buildings are," Krishnan said. And so "the kind of collapses you saw in China, we might see here."

Wal-Marts and Targets could also take a hit, Krishnan said. Many of these mega buildings are constructed in a so-called tilt-up fashion in which huge concrete walls are constructed horizontally on the ground and then tiled up vertically and braced to the roof with some kind of connections. "The connections are the weak link," Krishnan said. "When these connections between the roof and these wall panels go, you are going to see pretty big collapses."

Seismic cities

Some cities are more shake-resistant than others. "The cities that have experienced earthquakes like Seattle and places in California are clearly much more vigilant, so those are probably some of the safest cities," DesRoches said.

But Memphis and St. Louis, which are in the New Madrid seismic zone, are worrisome to DesRoches and other experts. "They haven't had an earthquake in a couple hundred years, so those are areas that people are concerned about, just because they don't have the history of doing seismic design as you do in California," DesRoches said. "Now new structures are built the right way, but older structures haven't been designed appropriately [in Memphis and St. Louis]."

He adds Charleston, South Carolina to the "hazardous city" list. "Charleston is another city that is somewhat hazardous, because they do have a history of earthquakes, but they're very infrequent. The last [big] one was in 1886," DesRoches said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080515/sc_livescience/whythechinaquakewassodevastating;_ylt=AvGhcKqFFWYz o9djfW.6wbjQOrgF

[Jolie Rouge]

China's post-quake challenge: 5 million homeless
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 20, 6:52 PM ET

AN XIAN, China - China is grappling with the next massive task in the aftermath of its earthquake — how to shelter the 5 million people left homeless.

Many were living Tuesday in tent cities like one at the base of Qianfo mountain in the disaster zone, offering some stability — along with food and medical care — to those whose lives were upended.

"After the quake, we couldn't sleep for five days. We were really, really afraid," said Chen Shigui, a weathered 55-year-old farmer who climbed for two days with his wife and injured father to reach the camp from their mountain village. "I felt relieved when we got here. It's much safer compared to my home."

But there's not enough room to go around.

The government issued an urgent appeal Tuesday for tents and brought in the first foreign teams of doctors and field hospitals, some of whom were swapping out with overseas search and rescue specialists.

The switch underscored a shift in the response to China's worst disaster in three decades from an emergency stage to one of recovery — and for many, enduring hardship.

On the second of a three-day national mourning period, the authoritarian government appeared to be moving to rein in the unusually free reporting it allowed in the disaster's first week. Most major newspapers carried near-identical photographs on their front pages of President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders with their heads bowed — a uniformity that is typical when state media censors direct coverage.

The May 12 earthquake's confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000, with at least 10,000 more deaths expected, and officials said more than 32,000 people were missing. The State Council, China's Cabinet, said 80 percent of the bodies found in Sichuan province had been either cremated or buried.

Authorities rushed to dispose of corpses, burning them or laying them side by side in pits. Vice Minister for Civil Affairs Jiang Li said officials had begun collecting DNA samples from bodies so their identities could be confirmed later.

Rescues — becoming more remarkable by the hour — continued on the eighth day since the quake, but the trickle of earlier days had slowed to a drip.

A 60-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed temple in the city of Pengzhou 195 hours after the quake, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Wang Youqun suffered only a hip fracture and bruises on her face during her eight days in the rubble, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television reported, citing air force officer Xie Linglong.

Jiang said 5 million people were homeless and that the government was setting up temporary housing for victims unable to find shelter with relatives. He said nearly 280,000 tents had been shipped to the area and 700,000 more ordered and that factories were ramping up to meet demand. Sichuan's governor said 3 million tents were needed.

In this encampment in An Xian, hundreds of large blue tents dot the flat farmland where rice and barley are being grown. The dried furrows provide orderly markers, lining up the temporary shelters with military precision in the fairly tidy area the size of a football field.

Some 4,600 people are being housed here, 90 percent of them from the mountains around Chaping village, about 20 miles away, which remains cut off by road, said camp director Yang Jianxin.

"All these refugees have lost their homes — their clothes and possessions are buried," he said. "We are doing what we can to help them."

As he spoke, the ground rumbled with the latest of what he said were hundreds of aftershocks felt in the past week. Refugees nearby gasped, and some ran from their tents in confusion, before calm settled after the 10-second tremor.

The entire quake zone is jittery. The Sichuan Seismological Bureau, one day after triggering a panic in the provincial capital of Chengdu by issuing a public warning of major aftershocks, said in a statement Tuesday the city was not a high risk area and was strong enough to withstand big tremors.

In the An Xian camp, more people are expected to show up in the next few days as more survivors make their way down from the mountains, Yang said. Some 500 people are either dead or missing from the Chaping area's main town, which still has about 1,800 survivors living in the mountains, he said.

Many of them, like Chen, made the 10-hour-plus hike down from the mountains with only the clothes they were wearing.

"We didn't sleep until we got here," Chen said. "I carried my father on my back part of the way, and then others helped me carry him down."

The camp has a clinic, food distribution points, toilets, a trash dump, and even plans for a temporary school. A red banner reads "Love is all around. We never feel lonely."

A giant, colorful pile of donated clothing lies in one corner, and dozens of women looking through it. Men in red vests regularly sweep and clean the area. Another area is a donation drop-off for a stream of well-wishers.

Among them was Tan Xuqiong, a 36-year-old teacher with a shiny black Prada bag slung over her shoulder, who came with her 18-year-old son to drop off boxes of water, food, and medicine.

"My hometown was only slightly affected. When I see these people living like this, I think it's so miserable. The contrast is shocking," said Tan, who is from Deyang city.

Each person in the camp receives regular daily rations: three bottles of water, a package of instant noodles, bread, and some crackers. Families also received small radios and copies of the local Mianyang Daily newspaper.

Loudspeakers regularly blare announcements about hygiene and reminders to get daily health checks — a precaution against possible disease outbreaks.

The clinic is staffed by eight physicians and six nurses — all volunteers with China's Red Cross. Running from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., the medical staff sees about 1,000 patients a day, said Dr. Ye Mao, a 51-year-old orthopedic surgeon from Guangdong province.

"The biggest problem is the density of the camps. If an infection breaks out, it can spread very quickly," he said. No outbreaks have been reported.

After initially refusing foreign help, China is now allowing in medical and rescue teams. A Russian mobile hospital arrived Tuesday in the provincial capital of Chengdu, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, and other medical teams were headed in from Taiwan, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The disaster has raised some sensitive issues for the government about building standards, especially for schools, and about whether authorities did enough to reach survivors quickly.

Xinhua reported Tuesday that 129 students and 10 teachers who were trapped in the village of Xu Yong were flown out two days after local officials said all outlying villages had been reached.

Chen, the farmer, said refugees in his camp are getting what they need to survive, and they are grateful for the help despite the crowded conditions. His family shares a tent with 10 other people.

His 46-year-old wife Liu Yingchun was wistful: "I still feel bad because I can't forget all the things we lost. I used half my life to get all this and then suddenly I've lost everything. I don't know if I can ever get back what I had."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake;_ylt=AhEizcu2ohjA_XrUxPCzJGys0NUE

[flute]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake


China says death toll in quake more than 51,000 By AUDRA ANG,
BEICHUAN, China - China said the toll of dead and missing from last week's powerful earthquake jumped to more than 80,000, while the government appealed Thursday for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

The confirmed number of dead rose nearly 10,000 from the day before to 51,151, Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin told a news conference. Another 29,328 people remained missing and nearly 300,000 were hurt in the May 12 quake centered in Sichuan province, he said.

The disaster left 5 million people homeless and leveled more than 80 percent of the buildings in some remote towns and villages near the epicenter. In bigger cities entire apartment blocks collapsed or are now too dangerous to live in because of damage and worries about aftershocks.

"We need more than 3.3 million tents," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, adding that 400,000 tents have already been delivered. It was the second call for tents from China in recent days.

"We hope and welcome international assistance in this regard. We hope the international community can give priority in providing tents," he said.

U.S. aid to earthquake victims totals $2.8 million, Ambassador Clark T. Randt Jr. said, including medical equipment and satellite images of damaged infrastructure. The American Red Cross had donated $10 million, and American companies operating in China have pledged more than $34 million.

Underscoring the need, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited two tent manufacturing companies in eastern Zhejiang province, urging workers to boost production to meet needs from the disaster area, state media reported.

Hu also chaired a meeting on the quake by China's highest governing body, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, where leaders vowed to continue the rescue effort "to the last village," according to a statement.

Vital supplies must be ensured in affected areas and stability restored to society, the committee said, adding that schools should be reopened and agricultural production restarted.

In one quake-hit area, the rescue effort was called off and work turned to reconstruction. Rescue teams departed Dujiangyan, where workers were burying bodies and clearing rubble from collapsed buildings, The Beijing Times state-run newspaper reported.

In the effort to assure people the government was placing top priority on relief efforts, Premier Wen Jiabao returned Thursday to the disaster zone, the official Xinhua News Agency said — his second trip there following a visit immediately after the quake.

The government is also grappling with official estimates of more than 4,000 children orphaned by the quake, and received hundreds calls from people offering to adopt them.

Anger that so many children died because their school buildings were poorly built continued to simmer online and in state media. The Southern Metropolis News quoted a rescuer as saying that rubble from the Juyuan high school, where more than 270 students died, showed that no steel reinforcing bars were used in construction, only iron wire.

Pictures posted online of Wufu town, where some 200 students died when the Fuxin No. 2 Primary School collapsed, showed roads lined with wreaths. Piles of dusty school bags were among the rubble.

"The children did not die because of a natural disaster, they died because of a dangerous building," read a hand-painted banner strung across a roadway.

In Beichuan, the smell of bleach was overpowering as rescue workers in white safety suits sprayed disinfectant in the area. Villagers were picking up medicine from stands set up by the government.

The town's government offices opened Thursday at a hotel in neighboring Anxian county.

"Our previous office buildings collapsed, but our responsibilities, never," Ma Yun, head of the county's administrative office, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Blocked streams, earthquake-loosened soil, mudslides and the upcoming rainy season create the risk of secondary disasters that can make relief work and rebuilding even more difficult, officials with the Ministry of Land and Resources said Thursday.

Avoiding further geological disasters during relief work and rebuilding will be a "daunting task," said Yun Xiaosu, vice minister of land and resources.

The earthquake and aftershocks created 34 lakes, known as barrier lakes, as debris blocked rivers and streams throughout the earthquake area.

"The dangers at the barrier lakes are severe," Yun said. "The water level in some lakes is high and rising. If there's a break, it will cause severe damage."

People who might be in the way of breaks already have been evacuated, he added.

The region's rainy season starts in June, creating further problems and risk of major mudslides, Yun said.

The torch relay, a symbol of the country's hopes for the Beijing Olympics, restarted Thursday with a minute of silence at a container terminal in the eastern seaport city of Ningbo. The torch run has been toned down in the wake of the temblor.

Originally planned for next month, organizers said the Sichuan leg of the run would be delayed until just before the start of the Aug. 8 games.

In another sign of attempts to return to normal after the quake, officials in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu ordered all government bodies and companies to resume regular operations, Xinhua reported.

This still brings tears to my eyes

[Jolie Rouge]

China decides not to rebuild largest town leveled by quake
By Tim Johnson, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu May 22, 1:36 PM ET

BEICHUAN, China— China has decided not to rebuild the largest town destroyed in this month's savage earthquake and may instead leave the town's towers of rubble as a memorial park in place for generations of awe-stricken visitors to witness.

Tucked in a steep river valley atop the unstable Longmen Fault, this onetime town of 20,000 people is in too vulnerable a location to rebuild, officials said. "Experts say the only option is to move the town and keep the remains," said Zhang Jie , press spokesman for Mianyang municipality, which oversees this town.

The State Council , China's cabinet, will make a final decision on whether to turn Beichuan into a memorial by the end of the month, Zhang said. He added that survivors of the quake in Beichuan have been relocated to the nearby cities of Mianyang and Anxian and will not be permitted to return to their former home. Soldiers already guard entry to the ruined city, barring access due to fears of infection and concern that a river blocked by landslides above the town, forming two lakes, may suddenly burst, letting a deluge down the valley.

Of Beichuan's former inhabitants, about 8,600 are known to have died and another 5,894 are considered missing. The rest appear to have survived.

State media have reported that residents who lost property in the city, and in other quake-devastated areas, will receive some compensation and subsidies but the specific amounts have not been released.

China won't be the first country to seal off a town devastated by natural disaster. In 1985, a volcanic eruption melted an icecap on an Andean peak, triggering a mudslide that buried the town of Armero in Colombia , killing 23,000 people. The site of the buried town was later declared "holy ground" and turned into a commemorative park.

A huge memorial at Beichuan might be a fitting tribute to a calamity that is likely to be seen by historians as a watershed moment for China, an event that saw the nation mobilize in massive numbers to help the victims, and embrace an emotional patriotism that at times seems feverish.

China's senior leaders personally arrived in the quake-stricken region to organize relief efforts. They allowed unusual levels of media freedom to satiate a public hungry for information, and gave an unusually visible role to the People's Liberation Army, which deployed 130,000 soldiers to help with the disaster.

Tens of thousands of ordinary Chinese volunteers flocked to the quake zone in Sichuan Province to offer their services. "People are giving their help in any way they can. If they have money, they are giving money," said Zhu Chujun , who is part of a volunteer team from the eastern city of Hangzhou offering psychological counseling to victims.

If emotions are high in China, Zhu said it is because of a confluence of events. "Everyone knows that 2008 is a special year," she said, referring to the upcoming Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

Many Chinese feel deep pride at their nation's re-emergence as a world power, mixed with anger at ethnic Tibetan unrest in March, and frustration at world reaction to China's handling of it, which led to repeated protests during a global Olympics torch relay last month.

Then the 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province in China's rugged southwest, a devastating natural catastrophe with tremors felt across the country.

As of Thursday, the quake's death toll stood at 51,151, with another 29,358 people missing. Some 4,000 children were left orphaned by the disaster.

China's economic might was on full display in the relief effort. Rescue teams drove down new highways that China has built in recent years to arrive at the quake zone quickly, bringing modern earth-moving machinery. Helicopters hovered overhead as rescue teams deployed state-of-the-art equipment to locate buried survivors.

Chinese journalists immediately began acting like Western counterparts, shaking off initial censorship rules to rush to the area and air vivid accounts of the quake, which survivors still describe in colorful detail.

"I couldn't even stay standing up holding onto a tree," Ling Kaishun, a 54-year-old farmer, recounted Thursday in a typical story.

The accounts resonated with the citizenry, and their actions defied the long-held belief that Chinese only care deeply about family, not unrelated Chinese.

Among those who volunteered is Dr. Wei Baoren, a retired internist from Tangshan, a city near Beijing that lost a quarter-million people in an earthquake in 1976. At that time, Beijing covered up the magnitude of the quake for at least a year.

"The government and people have gone all out to help the victims this time," said Wei, standing outside a Red Cross tent on the outskirts of this ruined city. "Compared to the earthquake 32 years ago, this is a magnificent development."

To channel the raw emotions bared by the new quake, Beijing mandated three days of "national grief" this week. It ordered flags flown at half-staff, closed all movie theaters, banned most entertainments like karaoke, and encouraged patriotic rallies.

Tens of thousands of Chinese gathered in the main squares of large cities on the one-week anniversary of the quake, and still at mid-week in Chengdu , capital of Sichuan , hundreds of people shouted themselves hoarse at candle-lit vigils in front of a statue of Mao Zedong, modern China's communist founder.

"Resist the earthquake!" shouted one young man. " Go China ! Don't cry China!" responded the crowd around him.

Pressure has surged for both citizens and private companies to display generosity.

In some workplaces, lists are being posted of how much each employee has donated so others can judge whether they think it is sufficient.

Ling, the farmer who tried to cling to a tree, said relief efforts face big hurdles.

"The government is under huge pressure," Ling said. "I'm a party member. I must have a good attitude. ... But such a vast area has been damaged."

Indeed, 5.3 million people were left homeless by the quake, and the lucky ones now live in tents. The government issued an emergency appeal for 3.3 million new tents Thursday, as it struggled to deal with the long-term housing crisis of the victims.

Even physical risks loom over Beichuan as planners look at a commemorative park. Three miles up upriver, landslides have blocked the waterway, creating two deepening lakes that threaten to burst their banks and send a torrent through the ruined town. Authorities now block all visitors at Beichuan's outskirts as experts devise how to restore the waterway.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080522/wl_mcclatchy/2946705;_ylt=AqMh4HMxm70gukNcgnraDUGs0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

1-child policy has exceptions after China quake
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
Mon May 26, 5:01 PM ET

BEIJING - Chinese officials said Monday that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's devastating earthquake. Those families can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said.

With so many shattered families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines, said a committee official surnamed Wang. "There are just a lot of cases now, so we need to clarify our policies," said Wang, who declined to elaborate.

The May 12 quake was particularly painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children.

The earthquake has left more than 65,000 people dead so far, with more than 23,000 missing. Officials have not been able to estimate the number of children killed.

Chinese couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child — but the previously paid fines won't be refunded. If the couple's legally born child is killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child — an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including free nine years of compulsory education.

China's one-child policy was launched in the late 1970s to control China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law includes certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.

The government says the policy has prevented an additional 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.

Though commonly called a one-child policy, the rules offer a welter of exceptions and loopholes, some of them put into practice because of widespread opposition to the limits.

For example, in large parts of rural China, most families are allowed a second-child, especially if the first was a girl. Local officials often have wide discretion on enforcement, a fact that has made the policy susceptible to corruption.

Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and Monday's announcement says there are no limits on the number of earthquake orphans a family can adopt. The adoptions, or even a future birth to a family that adopts an orphan, will not face the limitations of the one-child policy.

Officials estimated last week that the quake left about 4,000 orphans, but they warned they would make every effort to connect children with other family members.

[Jolie Rouge]

New aftershocks bring terror to quake-hit China
By Tyra Dempster
Tue May 27, 12:34 PM ET

MIANZHU, China (Reuters) - New aftershocks toppled 420,000 houses and injured dozens in southwest China on Tuesday, heaping destruction and fear on a region struggling to recover from the country's worst earthquake in decades.

The houses collapsed when a 5.4 magnitude aftershock rocked Sichuan province's Qingchuan county on Tuesday afternoon, injuring 63 people, six critically, Xinhua news agency said.

Another tremor, of 5.7 magnitude, hit neighboring Ningqiang county in Shaanxi province, the agency said, citing the China National Seismological Network. No deaths had been reported.

The aftershocks struck the mountainous region as soldiers worked non-stop to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake," and the planned evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people to avert a new disaster continued, state media said.

The official death toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 was raised on Tuesday to 67,183, but it was certain to rise as 20,790 were listed as missing. The quake injured nearly 362,000 people.

Soldiers and police trekked to the Tangjiashan lake carrying dynamite to blast mud and rubble that has blocked a river and created the largest of 35 quake lakes formed when landslides triggered by the massive tremor blocked streams and rivers.

Some 30,000 people living below the lake in and around Beichuan have been evacuated as a precaution.

In Mianyang, which includes Beichuan town, 150,000 people will have been evacuated by midnight on Tuesday, in line with a contingency plan should the lake's 300 million cubic meters of water burst the barrier, Xinhua reported.

"It's better for them to complain about the trouble that the evacuation would bring than to shed tears afterwards..." Liu Ning, an official with the Water Resources Ministry, was quoted as saying.

"QUAKE LAKE" LEVEL RISES

The lake rose to 725.3 meters (2,380 feet) on Monday, only 26 meters below the lowest part of the barrier, he said.

By Monday night, around 600 engineers and soldiers had gathered at the landslip and were taking turns to work through the night, using bulldozers brought in by helicopters.

The troops were expected to finish the sluice by June 5 and would not discharge floodwater in the coming days, even though the water level rose a further 1.79 meters on Tuesday and authorities were preparing for the worst, Xinhua said.

Twenty-eight quake lakes were still rated dangerous, and a total of 379 damaged reservoirs were still considered "high risk," Xinhua said, and aftershocks continued to jolt the area.

The most powerful of thousands of aftershocks killed at least eight people on Sunday, hampering relief efforts and terrifying quake survivors anew.

Mianyang, which includes Beichuan and where more than 16,000 people died in the original quake, replaced its mayor on Monday, but no reason for the change was made public.

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday that relief work would shift to reconstruction for the 15 million people displaced by the quake.

The massive relief effort, which involves providing food, tents and clothing for millions, some in isolated villages, and the reconstruction of housing and infrastructure are expected to take up to three years.

The biggest appeal is for tents and prefabricated housing units for millions of people made homeless just as the weather turns hotter and wetter, increasing the risk of disease.

"The temperature in the tents will be between 31 and 37 degrees Celsius in the next two days, so ventilation and cooling measures must be kept in mind," Xinhua said.

Health officials said they were confident they could prevent outbreaks of epidemics.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080527/ts_nm/quake_dc;_ylt=ApiqopYqWx85bDGRQmGzmlms0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

Chinese police drag grieving parents from protest
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
35 minutes ago

DUJIANGYAN, China - Chinese police dragged away more than 100 parents Tuesday while they were protesting the deaths of their children in poorly constructed schools that collapsed in last month's earthquake. The parents, many holding pictures of their dead children, were pulled down the street away from a courthouse in Dujiangyan, a resort city northeast of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.

"Why?" some of them yelled. "Tell us something," they said as black-suited police wearing riot helmets yanked at them.

The parents had been kneeling in front of the courthouse yelling, "We want to sue."

Police dragged an Associated Press reporter and two photographers who covering the protest up the steps into the courthouse, trying to prevent them from seeing the demonstration.

"The parents were here to give their report to the court," said one police officer who refused to give his name.

Calls to local police were not answered Tuesday.

The government says the May 12 earthquake destroyed 7,000 classrooms. Many parents have accused contractors of cutting corners when building the classrooms, resulting in schools that could not withstand the 7.9-magnitude quake. Pictures of collapsed schools surrounded by buildings still standing have fueled anger.

More than 270 students died when one high school collapsed in Juyuan, near Dujiangyan. The Southern Metropolis News quoted a rescuer as saying that rubble from the school showed that no steel reinforcing bars had been used in construction, only iron wire.

The confirmed death toll for China's worst disaster in three decades was 69,019, and more than 18,000 people are still missing, the government said. The quake also left 5 million people homeless.

Meanwhile, the official Xinhua News Agency said that authorities have delayed for two days an attempt to divert water from a huge lake formed when the quake sent landslides tumbling into a river in Beichuan in northern Sichuan.

Water levels in the lake had been rising steadily and threatened to flood surrounding areas, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 200,000 people already uprooted by the quake. But Xinhua said with little rain forecast for the next several days, rescue workers were not likely to start draining off the water until Thursday. The work had been expected to begin Tuesday.

Workers have already used heavy equipment to dig a runoff channel to remove the water. The government is worried the newly formed lake could burst, sending a wall of water through a valley.

In an indication of how difficult rescue conditions are in parts of Sichuan, there was still no sign of a helicopter that crashed nearly three days ago while ferrying survivors. Thousands of soldiers have been combing remote mountains in search of the military helicopter.

The Russian-designed Mi-171 transport was carrying 19 people, 14 of them people injured in the quake, when it flew into fog and turbulence and crashed Saturday near the epicenter of the quake in the town of Wenchuan, state media reported.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake;_ylt=Asg1YtnlbOgUIOnixkFZqgWs0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

So far only 1 China quake orphan adopted
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Sep 8, 9:21 AM ET

BEIJING - Only one orphan has been adopted in the four months since a devastating earthquake in Sichuan province left some 90,000 people dead or missing, government officials and state media said Monday.

The 10-year-old boy is from the quake-hit town of Mianzhu, said a staffer from Sichuan's Civil Affairs Office who gave only his surname, Zhao, as is customary by Chinese officials.

The orphan was identified Zhang Anyun, a student from the Hanwang Central Primary School, according to the official China Daily newspaper. He was adopted by a couple in the capital of Chengdu.

Both of Zhang's parents were killed when their apartment collapsed, the report said. His grandparents are alive but are both more than 80 years old and cannot afford to support him, it said.

The paper said that a total of 532 children lost their parents in the May 12 quake that killed nearly 70,000 people and left another 18,000 missing, but most of them have been taken in by family members or guardians.

In late August, the government announced that only 88 were eligible for adoption because they had no relatives who could be located or could care for them, the paper said. Of the 88 children, 28 are between 5 to 10 years old, while 54 are between 10 to 14 years old, the paper said.

One reason for the slow response in finding adoptive homes is that couples are hesitating over adopting handicapped children, China Daily said, citing sources from the provincial civil affairs department.

Jiang Tao, head of the division in charge of adoption at the provincial civil affairs office, was quoted as saying that adoptive parents preferred children who are under 6 years old and are not handicapped. However, many of the quake orphans sustained physical or other injuries during the quake that are permanent handicaps, according to his office.

The Civil Affairs Ministry said earlier this year that people nationwide had shown a huge interest in adopting quake orphans, with 10,000 families registering for adoption in one province alone. The ministry said at the time that priority would be given to parents who had lost children in the quake.

Adoptions are further complicated by rules that require orphans whose parents are listed as officially missing to wait two years for the parents to be declared dead before they can be adopted.

Adoptions are not open to foreigners, including residents of the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau and Taiwanese citizens. The ministry has said that only childless Chinese couples over the age of 30 can be considered as adoptive parents

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080908/ap_on_re_as/china_quake_orphan;_ylt=Am65qOfPSUIzNmRASKYl4HW9Ix IF

[Jolie Rouge]

17,921 still 'missing' 2 years after China quake
By Cara Anna, Associated Press Writer Tue May 11, 4:19 am ET

BEIJING – Wednesday marks the second anniversary of China's worst disaster in a generation, the Sichuan earthquake — and a painful milestone for the families of the 17,921 people still recorded as missing.

Chinese law says relatives can apply two years after a disaster to have their loved ones registered among the dead. Not many are expected to do so. It's a choice that offers some minor financial compensation and a mix of closure and fresh pain.

"It will be like exposing their scars another time," said Gao Guizi, who runs the Sichuan 512 Relief Service Center, which helps coordinate the aid groups working with quake survivors.

Some mental health workers say the families of the missing carry a more difficult burden than those of the dead.

"They still have feelings that their loved ones could come back," said Hai Lan, a Red Cross mental health crisis expert. Her team is the only one to have stayed in the quake-hit region in southwest China over the past two years. "Emotionally, it's harder to deal with. The people who know for sure, it's much more easy."

As families come forward, the official death toll — 68,712 as of the last count a year ago — will climb as the claims are verified. The provincial government has said it will take a year after relatives apply for such deaths to become official.

Sichuan officials are expected to update the number of dead and missing at a press conference Wednesday.

One well-known writer who wandered the region interviewing quake survivors, Liao Yiwu, is among those in Sichuan who worry that the number of missing is higher than the official count.

"The floating population," he said, referring to migrant workers whose families live elsewhere in China and might not have reported them as missing after the quake.

The compensation for a death in the earthquake is just 5,000 yuan ($730) from the central government plus an equal or smaller amount from the local government. For many in a rapidly growing China, the amount is almost token.

Zhang Xinbao, a legal professor at Renmin University who has written about compensation issues in the earthquake, predicts families will be in no hurry to seek an official determination of death.

"Think of the trouble and bitterness they will have to go through," he said.

Nor is the government in a rush to shift the missing into the column of the dead, Zhang said. With the passage of time, the focus is on reconstruction, and many survivors are looking to the future.

"I'm not able to speak on behalf of the government, but declaring death is not a priority when they're making public policy, nor is it urgent," Zhang said.

For those with missing relatives, there is no right or wrong decision Wednesday, said Marlene Lee, a clinical psychologist in Singapore who spent a month in Sichuan after the quake as a volunteer with Doctors Without Borders.

She recalled a man who saw boulders come down the shaking mountainside and crush the construction site where his wife was working. He couldn't dig her out, but he knew she was there. He was able to start moving on, she said.

"The fact there is a huge number of similar losses is one factor for people to make sense of what happened," Lee said. "I do have to say I think the people are very, very resilient, focused on helping each other and making sense of things."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100511/ap_on_re_as/as_china_earthquake_the_missing/print;_ylt=AvG93Q5iRNk3S6tQ1jCzWAr9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDM TBvajZzaTFyBHBvcwMxNQRzZWMDdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--