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  • China quake death toll rises to about 10,000

    By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer

    CHENGDU, China - A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants Monday in central China, killing about 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the country's worst quake in three decades.

    The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in midafternoon, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing and could be felt as far away as Vietnam.

    As Tuesday dawned, rescuers were frantically searching for more survivors, but rain was compounding the difficulty. Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to the region, said rain was forecast for the next several days.

    The government was pouring in troops to aid in the disaster recovery. Xinhua said 16,000 were in the area and 34,000 more were en route.

    Snippets from state media and photos posted on the Internet underscored the immense scale of the devastation. In the town of Juyuan, south of the epicenter, a three-story high school collapsed, burying as many as 900 students and killing at least 50, the official Xinhua news agency said. Photos showed people using cranes, mechanical hoists and their hands to remove slabs of concrete and steel.

    The news agency reported on Tuesday that another 1,000 students and teachers were buried and feared dead when a high school collapsed in Beichuan county. The building was reduced to a pile of rubble two yards high, it said.

    Buried teenagers struggled to break free from the rubble in Juyuan, "while others were crying out for help," Xinhua said. Families waited in the rain near the wreckage as rescuers wrote the names of the dead on a blackboard, Xinhua said.

    Parents of the dead students built makeshift religious altars at the site, resting the corpses on any available piece of plywood or cardboard, and burning paper money and incense in a traditional honor for their child in the afterlife, according to NPR's Melissa Block.

    The earthquake hit one of the last homes of the giant panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve and panda breeding center, in Wenchuan county, which remained out of contact, Xinhua said. But the agency reported that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.

    In Chengdu, it crashed telephone networks and hours later left parts of the city of 10 million in darkness.

    "We can't get to sleep. We're afraid of the earthquake. We're afraid of all the shaking," said 52-year-old factory worker Huang Ju, who took her ailing, elderly mother out of the Jinjiang District People's Hospital. Outside, Huang sat in a wheelchair wrapped in blankets while her mother, who was ill, slept in a hospital bed next to her.

    The overall death toll increased to about 10,000, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. It said nearly 10,000 people died in central China's Sichuan province alone and 300 others in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing.

    Worst affected were four counties including the quake's epicenter in Wenchuan, 60 miles northwest of Chengdu. Landslides left roads impassable Tuesday, causing the government to order soldiers into the area on foot, state television said, and heavy rain prevented four military helicopters from landing.

    Wenchuan's Communist Party secretary appealed for air drops of tents, food and medicine. "We also need medical workers to save the injured people here," Xinhua quoted Wang Bin as telling other officials who reached him by phone.

    To the east, in Beichuan county, 80 percent of the buildings fell, and 10,000 people were injured, aside from 3,000 to 5,000 dead, Xinhua said. State media said two chemical plants in an industrial zone of the city of Shifang collapsed, spilling more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia. The news agency said about 600 people died in Shifang and up to 2,300 were buried by rubble.

    Though slow to release information at first, the government and its state media ramped up quickly.

    Wen, a geologist by training, held an early morning emergency meeting near Chengdu and ordered troops and police to clear the road north to Wenchuan.

    "We must try our best to open up roads to the epicenter and rescue people trapped in disaster-hit areas," he said. Wen said the earthquake "was more serious" than expected.

    Television footage showed large boulders and downed trees blocking the road to Wenchuan.

    Disasters always pose a test for the communist government, whose mandate rests heavily on maintaining order, delivering economic growth, and providing relief in emergencies.

    Pressure for a rapid response was particularly intense this year, with the government already grappling with public discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

    "I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy," President Bush said in a statement.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said no aid requests had been made by China.

    International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge sent his condolences to President Hu Jintao, adding: "The Olympic Movement is at your side, especially during these difficult moments. Our thoughts are with you."

    The quake was the deadliest since one in 1976 in the city of Tangshan near Beijing that killed 240,000 — although some reports say as many as 655,000 perished — the most devastating in modern history. A 1933 quake near where Monday's struck killed at least 9,000, according to geologists.

    Monday's quake occurred on a fault where South Asia pushes against the Eurasian land mass, smashing the Sichuan plain into mountains leading to the Tibetan highlands — near communities that held sometimes violent protests of Chinese rule in mid-March.

    Much of the area has been closed to foreign media and travelers since then, compounding the difficulties of getting information. Roads north from Chengdu to the disaster area were sealed off early Tuesday to all but emergency convoys.

    In Chengdu, the region's commercial center, the airport closed for seven hours, reopening only for emergency and a few outbound flights. A major railway line to the northeast was ruptured, stranding about 10,000 passengers, Xinhua said. Although most of the power had been restored by nightfall, phone and Internet service was spotty and some neighborhoods remained without power and water.

    Nervous residents spent the night outside, some playing cards or heading to the suburbs. State media, citing the Sichuan seismology bureau, reported 313 aftershocks.

    "Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," said Ronen Medzini, an Israeli student in Chengdu, via text message.

    When it hit shortly before 2:30 p.m., the quake rumbled for nearly three minutes, witnesses said, driving people into the streets in panic.

    "It was really scary to be on the 26th floor in something like that," said Tom Weller, a 49-year-old American oil and gas consultant staying at the Holiday Inn. "You had to hold on to something like that or you'd fall over. It shook for so long and so violently, you wondered how long the building would be able to stand this."

    While most buildings in the city held up, those in the countryside tumbled. On the outskirts of Chongqing, a school collapsed, killing at least five people. Residents said teachers kept the children inside, thinking it was safer.

    The city of Mianyang ordered all able-bodied males under 50 to take water and tools and walk or drive to Beichuan, where most of the buildings had collapsed.

    State TV 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.

    China's two stock exchanges suspended trading Tuesday in 66 companies based in the region in an effort to minimize potential disruptions from the disaster. In Tokyo, Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Toshiaki Hori said production had been suspended at the company's Chengdu factory.

    Although initially measured at 7.8 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey later revised its assessment of the quake to 7.9. Its depth — about six miles below the surface, according to the USGS — gave the tremor such wide impact, geologists said.

    The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, 930 miles to the north, causing evacuations of office towers. People ran screaming into the streets in other cities, where many residents said they had never felt an earthquake.

    In Beijing, where hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors are expected for the Olympics, stadiums, arenas and other venues for the games were undamaged.

    Li Jiulin, a top engineer on the 91,000-seat National Stadium — known as the Bird's Nest and the jewel of the Olympics — was conducting a site inspection when the quake struck. He told reporters the building was designed to withstand a 8.0 quake.

    "The Olympic venues were not affected by the earthquake," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee. "We considered earthquakes when building those venues."

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

    The massive Three Gorges dam, the world's largest about 350 miles to the east of the epicenter, was not affected, according to the information office of State Council Three Gorges Construction Committee. The area around the enormous dam remains increasingly precarious as rising waters in the reservoir have led to landslides.
    ZhongwenMovies.com

  • #2
    GOd no, not the pandas ! thank god for bast*rds who kidnap animal life and keep them alive for the pupose of breeding huh. a world with no pandas is a litte bit sad.

    Anyway, I saw this on the news, and I saw the ministe or whomever he was yelling through a megaphone to the hundreds reportedly buried alive waiting for rescue, that "the troops are rescuing you!". fancy the fact that might make a difference .

    crazy timing btw.
    nearly makes a person think that it couldn't have been more poiniantly timed.

    blooming tianshi lotus

    Comment


    • #3
      I'm surprised that this hasn't happened before. Or, maybe it has, and no one "talked" about it... It must be one hell of a fault line there, with the merging of the Himalayas and the great plain of China.
      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

      (more comments in my User Profile)
      russbo.com


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      • #4
        The pandas.

        Yes. Let's all pray that the pandas are ok. Thanks for reminding us of them BL.
        Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

        "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

        (more comments in my User Profile)
        russbo.com


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        • #5
          Have you ever wondered how the eco system gets effected when a species dies out?? they are soo hairy. I'm suure it would count somewhere or other.

          what was "atari linx china syndrome" about back in the day anyway???? I'm not sure I get it.

          f*ck china =nuke town ??

          I might not be following to be honest.

          Blooming tianshi lotus.

          Comment


          • #6
            You know, with the strength and power of these natural disasters increasing so rapidly at time comes closer to what is predicted to be climax points in evolution, as with the mayan calandar for example, for whatever the interperatation is of the outcome, it does look very apolcolpytically relevant.
            I was looking at some archaeolgical findings today, starting with sodum and gomahara, the site where apparently "god reigned down fire and brimsetone" and the sulfuric remnants of that find. the evoironmentakl phenomena is amazing, and the preresquisites of what would have needed to happen first in the way of reactant conditions, is not not a useful general note on environmental geneology.

            I then skipped to noah's ark, which has supposedly been found, and the red sea and sinai desert crossing paths, and I have to wonder if this apocalyptic turn, whichI am probably inclined to pay it, isn't a similar but modified phenomena or one that is in a later evolution, where there might actually be enough of us to save us all from that particular climatic product.

            I think there is progressive gentic and mircobiolgical theorum that supports that that is how that nature works.
            the earrth cleansing itself is a very good way to look at it. If the idea is to keep destroying and rebalancing homeostatic ideals, it looks alot me like it's the easy way or the hard way, and maybe a bit of both, but thaat is what's going on.

            As the main intigators of the modern assimilation race, if not nature itself, God bless America.


            I think we've discussed it before, but, no wonder ppl are building limited and selectively allocated berthed space craft, though. Is that well intentioned as* backwardness or what??


            Also, if china were an epicentre of the earth, what would the astonomical axial direction and dimensions of thaat proposal be, do we think??

            Blooming tianshi lotus.

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            • #7
              my prayers are with them, it must be very hard.
              "Life is a run. In attack we run, in defense we run. When you can no longer run, time to die" - Shichiroji "Seven samurai"

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              • #8
                Originally posted by doc View Post
                I'm surprised that this hasn't happened before. Or, maybe it has, and no one "talked" about it... It must be one hell of a fault line there, with the merging of the Himalayas and the great plain of China.

                the news here reported that himalayas increased height by 3 inches as a result of this. I must 've missed that comment earlier on, but, I've not thought the same thing myself all on my own, I guess.



                anyway, china has just today declared a national 3 day mourning period. entertainment has been curbed, including postponement of the torch relay and entertainment television, , so, it looks like they really are taking it very seriously. Ah well. there was an outcry from some group or other in Beijing to stop the olympic games period, so maybe that wil pacify instead.





                Blooming tianshi lotus.

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                • #9
                  Not to dwell on conspiracy theories, but, ever since the nuclear testing in the fench atoll, and other potentially supporting information since then, I often wonder with alot of these 'natural disasters' just how much help they might have had.

                  there mUst have been land shifts in the first place to create the mountains, thinking in terms of anthropolical genomic science, as bones are formed even, and maybe even in successions, but this is from the global disaster watch, reporting some odd relative phenomena around the same.

                  [quote http://home.att.net/~thehessians/disasterwatch.html ]

                  INDIA - The mystery behind the geological eruption at the Murti village in Baramati taluka on Sunday remained unsolved, even as a three-member geologists’ team from Pune visited the place on Wednesday and ruled out any volcanic activity. After inspecting the spot thoroughly, they said, “The eruption is neither a volcano nor an earthquake. Villagers need not worry. Onlookers have stepped on the spot and have destroyed vital clues. We should have visited the spot much earlier. We have taken a few samples of the solidified matter." When asked why the area was not cordoned off to keep it safe from public interference, the police sub-inspector said he had informed the higher authorities about the incidence. Confirming that it was not a natural phenomenon, the DVS secretary said, “The melting of rock-like substances had taken place at the electricity pole. It later solidified in the form of hard matter.” Explaining a possibility, she said since the eruption occurred at the bottom of an iron electricity pole, perhaps it has to do with electricity. The molten lava-like fluid may have taken place due to residual current under the earth surface. According to witnesses, a lava-like substance was oozing out from the six-inch radius hole. A man who was among the first to visit the spot after the eruption said initially there was hot, brown fluid and vapour was continuously coming out. Another man, in whose field the incident took place, said that he saw the eruption of a red-hot fluid. “The government authorities will decide their next course of action after studying the geologists’ report."
                  [end quote]

                  could it be a form of warfare ? The relative timing to political hot spots, seems pretty strategic of "nature", no?
                  Good idea to accept help?

                  I do wonder.

                  Blooming tianshi lotus.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Maybe it's as simple as tectonic plate movement. The Himalayas weren't just created by god you know.

                    Attached is an svg file that you can open in your browser. It clearly shows the delineation between Tibet and China, and the fact that they meet at the juncture of two tectonic plates.

                    As I've said before, it's surprising this hasn't happened before.
                    Attached Files
                    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                    (more comments in my User Profile)
                    russbo.com


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                    • #11
                      There's something wrong with the link. Either it wont open, or it's too big too see all once and has no page navigation.


                      So, .. if you think of epiphiseal plates, and there's cartilage between say a junction of two harder masses... which is which do you think?

                      Just because there's a plate, it doesn't mean that movement wasn't assisted. with the number of nuclear plants between india an china.. do you know that electricity fed through a tube ( iron would qualify.. like ..nuclear rod or feed pipe iron) full of gas produces light and energy? If that happened in india.. and that happened ..

                      Do you remember the old sunken palace stories and the underground pipes that are suposedly stashing rescource for a particular number? ..
                      ..like petrol into russia and water into the middle east ..or.. hardened underground man made tunnels that met or cummulated a supply ?? Feng shui theory says that pipes disturb the bones of the earth .
                      I think they're all suspects, so,
                      I'm not convinced here you know.

                      Blooming tianshi lotus.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by doc View Post
                        I'm surprised that this hasn't happened before. Or, maybe it has, and no one "talked" about it... It must be one hell of a fault line there, with the merging of the Himalayas and the great plain of China.
                        it has and far worse... check this out http://www.drgeorgepc.com/EarthquakesChina.html

                        The interesting thing this time round is that they are talking about it. One analyst at the BBC was discussing how this might be a big problem for the government, this sudden openess. He compared it to how Russia talking openly about their failures in Afghanistan was a big cause of dissent and in part led to the collapse of the USSR. Some think that China's openess about the situation in Sichuan may be the beginning of the same effect. You need only look at some of the local online message boards to see how people are beginning to blame the government for many of the deaths. Seeing how most schools collapsed but many government buildings remained standing...

                        Anyway, yesterday was the first of 3 days of mourning designated by the central Government. The following venues and services will be closed until Thursday

                        -KTV (oh my god!)
                        -Net Cafe's with Gaming Machines (find one that doesn't have a gaming machine...)
                        -Bars
                        -All China based online game pages (oh my god!)
                        -Topway TV Foreign Channels (who cares, they were useless anyway...)

                        In fact, for the last two days every single TV channel has broadcasting earthquake news 24 hours non-stop.

                        Everybody is now feeling the pain.


                        There are only 10 types of people in this world.
                        Those that understand binary and those that don't.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I think my emails to china are getting bounced back because of the same thing.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Excellent link about the earthquakes there.

                            As for China's "demise", it's been long thought that the internet would play a role in that. People like to express themselves. The internet finally gives them the opportunity to really do so.
                            Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                            "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                            (more comments in my User Profile)
                            russbo.com


                            Comment


                            • #15
                              A link with a map showing all the fault lines and so on through the continent and world even would probably be quite cool to see.I might check one myself sometime.As for the demise though, where in russia's history comparitively does it show where they had a concious plan by the goverment toooo open the country to forgein influence with the intention of assimilation toward reforming the entire culture?I dont know for sure they didn't have one, but I do know that they faught to keep the muslim 'invasion' at bay as they tried to support external integration, for whatever reason, even geographically strategic, as they themselves went forth and offered allyships to preserve that.I think it's a little more directively strategic than probably really appears. dont forget china's philosophical heritage in this neither.Blooming tianshi lotus.

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