Massive Earthquake in China
Since I've been a person that has experienced two major quakes in California, I can tell you this is an absolute nightmare. And the destruction obviously was nothing like what is being reported there.
A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 8,500 people, trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school and spilling ammonia from a chemical plant, state media reported.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake was among the worst to strike China in decades, devastating a hilly region of small cities and towns in Sichuan and nearby provinces. The official Xinhua News Agency said 8,533 people died in Sichuan and dozens of other deaths were reported elsewhere.
Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.
A chemical plant collapsed in Shifang city, to the northeast of the quake's epicenter, burying hundreds of people and sending more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia leaking from the site, state media report..read on
awful, just awful. My heart goes out to those poor people. Earthquakes are no fun.
"A chemical plant collapsed in Shifang city, to the northeast of the quake’s epicenter, burying hundreds of people and sending more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia leaking from the site, state media report."
Aw man, that is bad.
Geez.
Those poor kids in that school...!
With the huge killer hurricane last week and now this, the reich-wingers must be orgasmic at the thought of End-Times.
Earthquake!!!...internets....not working....very slow....shook all the undersea cables loose....nothing on CNN headline...yet ...nothing on the weather channel yet....
How much will Bush pledge this time...$2 million?
He's not content to embarrass himself...he has to embarrass all of us.
Local officials were quoted as saying that while the damage was extensive, they can rebuild the entire region by Thursday just on the interest alone they are receiving financing the bloated US debt.
Were they planning a Gay Pride parade this week?
"Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply"
whoa, whoa, whoa.... 80% of the buildings in that county collapsed?!? 80%??? ummm... holy shit.
something tells me, if that figure is accurate, that the 8500+ death toll number is far under the final total.
They say earthquakes don't kill people -- buildings do. Sadly, many buildings in developing countries just are not built to handle earthquakes. This is horrible. The most traumatic experience of my relatively sheltered life was the Northridge Quake. Friends of mine lost their homes. I had nightmares for months. And the aftershocks were terrifying.
People in LA and SF need to be prepared for "'The Big One" because it's coming.
How tragic that is. I wonder if the US will offer assistance to them. Or maybe Laura will hold a press conference instead and just insult them all.
Has Pat Robertson blamed their pagan views for this tragedy? Or was that Reverend Hagee? Can't be Jerry Falwell...he's dead.
Biggus Diggus @ 10:
The Loma Prieta quake was a doozy.
You're right. Its just a matter of time. Last year they said that Calif gets a major one every 150 years.Last year was year # 149.
According to historians and siesmologists.
Well it took CNN a few minutes but I finally saw a report @ (about)1:30 eastern time....CNN is even slower than these darned internets...
Earthquakes are disappointing unless I can see Superman lifting up an entire continent! W00t!
All that rejected aid waiting next door in Burma should be welcome.
Having experinced California earthquakes in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, there is nothing as frieghtening because you are completely helpful and have no way of knowing what is going to happen during and for weeks after. Considering that this quake was so much stronger than the devastating quakes of California or any I can recall in the U.S., one can only imagine the terror. I wonder how the Chinese Government will respond? They are a rich country in many ways now. Will that translate into a massive effort of aid? Will this impact the Olympics?
calgarylady @ 11:
Or kindanasty rice will blame the government for not acting
The Chinese government over the quake
Not our government over Katrina.
Biggus Diggus @ 10:
According to what I heard this morning, the majority of the buildings in the area are simple concrete/steel rebar construction. In an earthquake greater that 5.0 buildings like that will crumble like sand castles.
milquetoast @ 14:
The Tubes get congested when you shake them.
By seriously, this is a real tragedy. There will be tens of thousands dead after they figure all the different reports from villages. Communications are out. You Tube only had one clip of the event so far.
The Chinese Government is really good at responding to disasters in China. They act fast. Last year 44,000 homes were destroyed in a southern quake and the government had tents distributed to all who lost their homes within 24 hours.
A 7.8 is huge. My thoughts are with the people affected by this disaster.
Major earthquake and the death toll will rise.
Cyclones, earthquakes, wild fire in Florida, floods, tornadoes and hurricane season is near.
Yeah, there are bigger things than Obama.
I wonder which radical, religious, wingnut will spew armageddon is here?
McGee, Wright, Robertson?
Liberal AND Proud @ 12:
Naw, he probably has business deals with the repressive government there, doesn't want to offend his partners. Pat R might play the religious icon but he's a money guy period.
BHOPAL!!
I hope their government can handle it better than ours did katrina
It's bad enough when the buildings are well built
In Seattle, we saw a lot of older buildings crumble apart-the ones built after the fire in 1889. and a couple months later, a few more buildings (brick) had facades come down.
wijg @ 21:
it has been re-rated at 7.9....
And if he did say that, shouldn't he watch himself because just a few weeks ago there was a mild brief quake in VA, where many of the DC politically-tied evangelical-industrial complex resides?
And tornadoes have been having a field day in the state recently as well...
Maybe they shouldn't be so quick to cast natural disasters on people for "moral reasons" when they themselves are in a rather busy weather/seismic area.
RppPolyp @ 27:
Don't you get it. When disaster happens to "others" it's because god is smiting them. When it happens to "them" it's the work of satan.
wijg @ 21:
Yeah, San Francisco was hit by a 7.8ish in 1906, which led to the destruction of much of the city.
as barbs bush would say , this will work out well for them ,look at how great katrina did for new orleans, after they police up the bloated corpses , america can send them the left over trailor homes we have left over from fema , pay no attention that the folks who lived in them are coughing thier lungs out from the formaldihide in the panelling , them bushes is all heart eh babs?
This is terrible! I heard it happened near that new dam too...
I work with some folks from that region. We have not heard from any of them yet.
7.9! MSNBC said that surrounding countries as far as Pakistan and Vietnam felt it.
StirFry @ 32:
Oh man...this is bad!
it is a well known fact that both burma and china were planning massive gay parades
god got angry
You are a person "who" -- not "that" -- has experienced earthquakes.
A common usage mistake these days. In the dumbed-down age of Bush, that's no surprise.
I was in the Chengdu area back in March. The tremendous amount of construction underway was mind-boggling. That city is about 55 miles from the epicenter, yet they are saying, so far, that there is little damage beyond some cracked walls in Chengdu. If so, I am amazed that with so much under construction nothing collapsed. Chengdu is a wonderful city with a vibrant downtown, surrounded by rings of construction activity.
The central government was a bit red-faced at its relatively inept handling of the blizzard crisis and its effect on travel during a peak travel time earlier this year. It will pour in massive amounts of aid to this area, very swiftly. China Daily (quite interesting to read) reports that "[m]ore than 5,000 PLA officers and soldiers and 3,000 police have also rushed to Wenchuan and surrounding areas to spearhead the rescue efforts." It'd be nice to see some fair and positive Western media reporting on China about this, but I'm not counting on it.
This was a remarkably widely-felt quake.
Beijing, 1,500 km away from the epicenter, felt the quake too and thousands were evacuated there. That's a huge quake! There've been about 7 after shocks, measuring 4-6 on the Richter scale. The death toll is up to 8,500 now with about 10,000 injured. But they're still digging through the rubble.
Oh, they have liquefaction in some areas...the ground literally liquifies and buildings start to lean and collapse [imagine the Tower of Pisa only worse].
Here's the latest update from CNN.
StirFry @ 32:
It was felt here in Chiang Mai, but we had no idea that it was so bad north of here.
http://www.chiangmainews.com/
milquetoast @ 14:
Yeah, when you peddle propaganda you have to be very careful of
what information you give the public.
U.S. President George W. Bush released a statement saying his country "stands ready to help in any way possible."
"Hehehe, well, except fer payin' ya a bunch of interest on our debt to you'alls or helpin' bring relief workers or nuthin' like that. But we'all got sum PRAYERS fer ya..."
Relief troops approaching epicenter on foot
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-13 03:59
BEIJING -- Relief troops are approaching Wenchuan County on foot, the epicenter of a quake that jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province Monday afternoon.
The authority has not given a specific number of the rescuing troops approaching the epicenter, but about 100 officers of the armed police forces advancing to Wenchuan on foot has been accessed via satellite phone.
Li Zaiyuan, head of the unit, told that there was only 70 kilometers toward their destination.
Set out from Maerkang at 20:00 on Monday, about 200 kilometers away from Wenchuan, the unit has walked for nearly seven hours on foot and met a number of aftershocks and sliding rocks in heavy rains.
"I have seen many collapsed civilian houses and the rocks dropped from mountains on the roadside are everywhere," said the unit head, "We are on the way on foot."
The epicenter of the quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, is located 31 degrees north and 103.4 degrees east.
The road from Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, to Wenchuan was blocked by rock and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams, a witness said via mobile phone.
Premier Wen Jiabao asked military personnel waiting in the city to enter the area as soon as possible even if they had to walk to Wenchuan.
The earlier the troops arrived, the more lives they could save, he said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-05/13/content_6679294.htm
Isolated quake epicenter appeals for emergency aid
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-13 04:09
BEIJING -- An official of Wenchuan County, the epicenter of a strong earthquake that struck southwest China Monday, appealed for emergency aid via a satellite phone early Tuesday, almost 11 hours after the county was cut off from the outside world.
"We are in urgent need of tents, food, medicine and satellite communications equipment through air drop. We also need medical workers to save the injured people here," said Wang Bin, Communist Party secretary of Wenchuan County, Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Wenchuan at 2:28 p.m. Monday. A number of aftershocks have been recorded.
Rescuers are yet to reach Wenchuan, 159 km northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, because all roads leading to the county had been destroyed by landslides and telecommunication links had also been cut.
At about 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday, He Biao, deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefectural government finally reached Wang Bin via a satellite phone, according to a statement posted on the website of the prefectural government.
"Wang Bin said between sobs that most of farmers' houses had collapsed in two townships, and most of the houses in the county seat are in danger," the statement said. "More than 30,000 residents stay outdoors in the county seat and dare not go home."
article continues
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-05/13/content_6679299.htm
Last report I heard said 80% of all buildings went down in one county alone. Some esimates out of China say's death toll could reach 100.000. My heart goes out to all the people of China.
really really awful indeed. It was said an official of the town at the epicenter was crying when he was contacted through satellite phone after 12-hour delay. Some of the smaller towns are completely cut-off from the outside. He requested immediate air drop. Death toll may reach 30-50K or even higher.
♠Bangkok-Bob♠ @ 38:
Wow...i looked on the map and that is a long ways away. Our company have many employees over in those counties that are not responding. I was thinking most of them don't have power,etc, but I hear the numbers may be in tens of thousands. :(
We will probably send them aid and billions of dollars to help them recover- even though they didn't send shit to us after Katrina or Andrew pummeled our country.
getalife @ 22:
Hagee and Co. won't touch this one. It involves China - too much money there. That may alienate big corporate money that has interests in China and floats cash their way. You haven't heard them scream much about the human rights situation in China, have you? I know their kind and they'll keep their mouths shut other than to offer prayers and sympathy. For about 10 minutes. Just enough to look good in the eyes of their sheep.
As for us real Christians, we have all of the Chinese people in our prayers. For real, not show.
I was in an earthquake once. Woke me up out of a dead sleep and I thought it was a nuclear attack. So naturally I ran out onto the street naked....because that's what you are supposed to do in a nuclear attack, right?
Gretchen @ 48:
Bad things happen to good people all the time, pray if you like, but as far as I can tell the best hope people have now in China are other good people willing to pitch in and help others in need, in the end it always boils down to the kindness and hard work of others. That’s what got us back on our feet in the bay area in the Loma Preda Quake.
Do you really think that if the Steroilympics weren't in China this year, that they would actually be lifting a finger? China is one of the world's most murderous nations of its own people - the Tibetans, the Uygurs, political prisoners, how it poisoned its own population with HIV/AIDS, tainted food and products (but only the low-level people get punished).
This is public relations, not public concern.
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