[krek-sikUp]

[hHwJ229h]

I read briefly about it this morning and there was only word about a handful deaths. Didn't expect it to be so big....

[SOgLak]

I hadn't heard the story until I was riding up to work in the elevator. The headline was 900 students dead. While that seemed bad, it wasn't until I saw the CNN feed on just how bad it really was.

[ticfarentibia]

And I will guess that the OFFICIAL stories out of China will downplay the number of real casualties.

[10traistintarry]

No.

[cenRealliat]

7.8 is REALLY big! It was felt as far away as Beijing, Burma, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Thousands Feared Dead as Earthquake Hits China
Listen: Steve Inskeep talks with Melissa Block in Chengdu, China
NPR.org, May 12, 2008 ·

As many as 8,500 people may be dead after a major earthquake hit China on Monday, wiping out 80 percent of the buildings in a single county in Sichuan province and causing ammonia to spill from a chemical plant, the state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency reported that more than 8,533 people were killed in the devastation, which flattened at least eight schools and one hospital. At one school in Sichuan, heavy cranes were used to try to rescue 900 students trapped beneath the rubble.

The magnitude 7.8 quake collapsed a chemical plant in Shifang city, burying hundreds of people and leaking more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia, the state-run Xinhua reported.

The quake's epicenter was in a mountainous region about 60 miles from Sichuan's capital Chengdu, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its force was felt hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai, where thousands of people rushed out of buildings and into the streets. The powerful earthquake was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The earthquake hit around 2:28 p.m., when schools and office buildings were full. The state media said many people were trapped in collapsed buildings. One man said he felt the road start to buckle when the earthquake began.

"The road started swaying as I was driving. Rocks fell from the mountains, with dust darkening the sky over the valley," a driver for Sichuan's seismological bureau told Xinhua.

Xinhua reported that four of the dead were ninth-grade students killed when their school collapsed. Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the site. Xinhua did not say how many of the students were feared dead.

The news agency said its reporters in Juyuan township, about 60 miles from the epicenter, saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from under 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."

State media warned residents not to panic, even as they reported the possibility of further quakes and aftershocks.

The quake is the worst to hit China in 32 years, since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in northeast China, where up to 300,000 died.

The devastation comes months before China is scheduled to host the Olympic Games.

[Niiinioa]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Terrible thing. Can count on the total reaching 4 times what's being reported, when it's all said and done.


EDIT: Saying 8500 now.
Now, 9000.


Thousands of earthquakes happen every day around the world. Most are hardly felt, if at all. But sometimes pieces of Earth's crust suddenly slip past each other in a massive release of pent-up stress. The jolted Earth rumbles, buildings collapse, streets buckle, and thousands of people die. These movements are nature's most violent act and take a grim toll on human life and infrastructure.


The deadliest earthquake in recorded history rattled the Shensi province of China on Jan. 23, 1556, and killed an estimated 830,000 people. The death toll was particularly high among peasants who lived in artificial caves that were dug into soft rock and collapsed during the quake.

[Peretool]

http://azulweb.streamguys.com/kut1.asx

NPR is talking about it quite a bit.

[Aozenee]

Originally posted by BlackCat


They did such in the past, but it seems that they have dropped that line When the authorithies screwed up... Maybe they should have regulated earthquakes like they regulate reincarnations, but other than that there isn't much they can be blamed for.

[Axxflcaj]

Since comminists have been so awe-inspiring in success stories?

[Longwow]

Iirc Chernobyl was initially reported as a fart of particularly potent vehemence.

Truly sad bit of timing for this quake, everyone was at work, kids in school.

[AlexClips]

Let me go on record for not saying that, Colon.
What I said, was that there was no success in a communist country.

[Qeiafib]

That's true. I hadn't thought about that, and that was big. Good one.

[avarberickibe]

We traveled fairly extensively right at the epicenter of this earthquake when we were in China last summer. It’s on the road from Chengdu to the Panda Preserve at Wolong. (Pictures from better times at the Wolong Wildlife Preserve can be found
here and here).

IIRC, most people in the area are members of the Qiang ethnic group and make their marginal living as farmers. Its really hard to imagine that so many of these people that we saw last summer are now dead. The area is pretty rugged and it is difficult to get around. The area under this bridge is now flooded by a large hydroelectric dam.

[Gromiaaborn]

Many houses are ramshackle affairs, poorly constructed of brick, tile, stone, or cinderblock. Casualties are likely to be quite high as rescuers work their way back into the more rural areas.

[Centurnion]

The road system is not very well developed, and logistics will clearly be a problem. Most bridges and tunnels are only one lane, and are open to uphill traffic for even numbered hours, and downhill traffic for odd numbered hours. Most roads are one and a half lanes wide. When large vehicles meet traffic jams such as this can develop. It is not uncommon for the drivers to get out and do “rock, paper, scissors” to determine who has to back up to the last wide spot in the road. It took us five hours to travel about 120 km (about 75 miles) in good weather.

[LillyPlay]

Originally posted by Colon™

When the authorithies screwed up... Maybe they should have regulated earthquakes like they regulate reincarnations, but other than that there isn't much they can be blamed for. They could be blamed for poor construction codes...

[Jalieteplalry]

[Crundaangerge]

They've proved that safety doesn't count, countless times.

[iodillalm]

Thanks for the pics, AS.