Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 01:57:06 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: THE SEARCH FOR ATLANTIS IN CUBA
A Report by Andrew Collins
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/atlantiscuba.htm
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Strong earthquake hits western China

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Strong earthquake hits western China  (Read 145 times)
0 Members and 72 Guests are viewing this topic.
Annihilus
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 1737



« on: May 12, 2008, 02:51:46 am »

Strong earthquake hits western China
Magnitude 7.5 temblor felt as far away as Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
updated 40 minutes ago
BEIJING, China - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 struck western China on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site.

The quake struck 57 miles northwest of the Sichhuan provincial capital of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. (2:28 a.m. ET), the survey said on its Web site. It said the quake was centered 18 miles below the surface.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage from the tremor which the USGS earlier put at 7.8.

The tremor was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai and the Thai capital Bangkok, where office buildings swayed with the impact.

"We felt continuous shaking for about two or three minutes. All the people in our office are rushing downstairs. We're still feeling slight tremblings," said an office worker in Chengdu.

In Beijing's financial district, many workers poured from their buildings but there were no visible signs of damage. The subway system was unaffected.

"People were shouting 'get out, get out', so we all ran out of our dorm," said a student surnamed Zhang at a university in nearby Chongqing.

Sources said there was no immediate impact to the Three Gorges Dam project, the weight of whose massive reservoir, hundreds of miles from Chengdu, experts have said could increase the risk of tremors.

A spokesman for the China Earthquake Administration said it was still checking the epicenter and scale of the tremor.

Please check back for details on this breaking news story.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24573168/
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Volitzer
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 11110



« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2008, 03:17:26 am »

Can anyone say Gaia Reality ??   Cry
Report Spam   Logged
Kristina
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4558



« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2008, 08:22:46 pm »


China quake death toll rises to nearly 10,000
      WILLIAM FOREMAN | May 12, 2008 09:05 PM EST | 




 
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a wounded resident, center, lies on a bed to receive treatment after Monday's powerful earthquake, in Longnan, northwest China's Gansu Province, Tuesday, May 13, 2008. State media reports that the death toll from the earthquake in central China has climbed to nearly 10,000 in the worst-hit province. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Han Chuanhao)

   
CHENGDU, China — A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants Monday in central China, killing nearly 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.

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.

Buried teenagers struggled to break free from the rubble, "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.

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.

Xinhua reported Tuesday morning that the death toll was approaching 10,000, but did not provide a more precise figure. It said the vast majority of the fatalities occurred in Sichuan with 216 more deaths 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. Nearly 20,000 soldiers, police and reservists were sent to the disaster area.

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.

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."

Premier Wen Jiabao, a geologist by training, called the quake "a major geological disaster," and traveled to the disaster area to oversee rescue and relief operations.

"Hang on a bit longer. The troops are rescuing you," Wen shouted to people buried in the Traditional Medicine Hospital in the city of Dujiangyan, on the road to Wenchuan, in comments broadcast by CCTV.

"As long as there was a slightest hope, we should make our effort a hundred times and we will never relax," he said outside the collapsed school in Juyuan.

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.

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.

Premier Wen, after arriving in Chengdu, traveled to Dujiangyan, near the collapsed high school. On his plane, he appealed for people to rally together.

"This is an especially challenging task," state TV showed Wen saying, reading from a statement. "In the face of the disaster, what's most important is calmness, confidence, courage and powerful command."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/12/china-earthquake-buries-9_n_101273.html
Report Spam   Logged

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."

Thomas Jefferson
Volitzer
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 11110



« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2008, 12:51:22 am »

...and the Chi-lluminati will just wait till the dead bodies are removed then do some more governmental land grabs.   Angry Angry Angry Angry

Then life will continue again in good ol' Communist-China.   Cry Cry Cry
Report Spam   Logged
Monique Faulkner
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4107



« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2008, 10:49:26 am »

Same as what happened here in Hurricance Katrina!  As well as what happened in the Asian beaches after the 2004 tsunami.  Natural disaster = government gets to take your land.  They must love the new businessiness opportunities that calamaties present.
Report Spam   Logged
Monique Faulkner
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4107



« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2008, 10:50:16 am »



18,000 buried under debris in China

More than 18,000 people are reported buried under rubble in just one earthquake-hit city of China as teams of rescuers battle broken roads, mudslides and heavy rain in desperate efforts to reach them. The death toll in Sichuan province alone exceeds 12,000, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Report Spam   Logged
Monique Faulkner
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4107



« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2008, 10:52:04 am »

Bodies retrieved as quake toll tops 12,000
Story Highlights
NEW: More than 18,000 buried under rubble, death toll passes 12,000

NEW: China welcomes foreign aid, not workers because of transport issues

Province hit by nearly 30 seismic aftershock jolts 24 hours after quake

Nearly 900 children buried when a school building collapses, 50 bodies found


Next Article in World »


 Read  VIDEO  PHOTOS MAP EXPLAINER
     
JIANGYOU, China (CNN) -- The death toll from the massive earthquake in central China exceeded 12,000 Tuesday, as rescue workers frantically tried to pull victims from the rubble and clear roads of debris so more relief can be delivered..




An earthquake survivor at a hospital in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province, on May 13.

1 of 3more photos »  A senior official with the Sichuan Provincial government said Tuesday the death toll in the province has surpassed 12,000 and is rising, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that the death toll was based on incomplete figures tallied by 4 p.m. (0900 GMT, 0400 ET) Tuesday.

He said another 26,206 people were injured and as many as 3.5 million homes have been destroyed.

Xinhua also reported that more than 18,645 people were buried under rubble in the city of Mianyang alone -- 3,629 people were also reported dead in the city, which neighbors the epicenter of the earthquake.

A string of nearly 30 seismic jolts hit the province in the first 24 hours following Monday's quake and slowed the progress of 1,300-strong rescue teams. All of those quakes were magnitude 4.0 and above.  See workers dig out the body of a small child from a collapsed school. »

A Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry official said his country welcomed foreign donations of money and materials, but it was not ready for outside teams of rescue and relief workers because its transportation system could not handle the additional traffic.

Don't Miss
Eyewitness: 'Floor was moving underneath me'
U.S. offers quake aid to China
iReport:  Your photos, videos
iReport.com: Send us your pictures, stories
Impact Your World
See how you can make a difference 
The Chinese government on Tuesday accepted an American offer of $500,000 in relief funds, according to an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development. However, China has not asked for other disaster assistance.

Roads blocked by rocks and mudslides had hampered the effort to reach the epicenter in Wenchuan County, forcing military doctors and soldiers to walk to reach the area almost 24 hours after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook central China, Xinhua said.

Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao ordered the military to make it a priority to open the roads into Wenchuan County, home to about 100,000 people, by midday Tuesday. He arrived in the earthquake zone Monday to personally direct the relief efforts.

"At present, we have great difficulties to carry out our rescue work," Wen said. "Blocked roads, disrupted communication and continuous rainfall have all created obstacles to our rescue efforts."

Several thousand additional soldiers should reach the area later Tuesday afternoon, Xinhua said.

Heavy rains forced the military to cancel plans to drop Chinese People's Liberation Army paratroopers into the Wenchuan area, Xinhua said. Bad weather also has grounded all helicopter relief efforts, the military said.

CNN's John Vause saw block after block of devastation in the town of Jiang You, about 60 miles (100 km) from the epicenter, arriving there about a day after the quake hit. Watch a report on misery inflicted by the quake »

"These people who live in the city are now hunkering down under tarpaulins and under tents," Vause said, as a steady drizzle added to the misery. "Many are afraid to go back indoors because their buildings are no longer safe."

Communications with survivors near the epicenter has been difficult because of broken telecommunication lines and poor weather. An official using a satellite phone did give an initial report that about a third of all buildings had collapsed and another third were seriously damaged, Xinhua said.  Watch quake victim pulled out of rubble »

In Guixi Township -- 35 km (22 miles) from the epicenter -- thousands of residents huddled under makeshift tents and tarps, their only shelter from a steady rain Tuesday. Impact Your World

Row after row of houses collapsed during the earthquake, leaving people with no place to go. Many injured and hungry people wandered the streets, creating a scene of human misery. The roads to the town were open, but still no relief workers were around.

An expert told CNN the earthquake, which struck at 2:28 p.m. (0728 GMT, 0228 ET) Monday, was the largest the region has seen "for over a generation."

Fact Box
Mianyang City: 7,395 people killed; 18,645 trapped in debris.
Mianzhu: 2,000 dead; 10,000 injured; at least 4,800 trapped.
Shifang: 600 dead; 2,300 trapped.
Chengdu: 959 dead in provincial capital.
Guangyuan City: 700 dead.
Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture: 161 dead.
Unconfirmed casualties reported in Ya'an, Ziyang and Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
The area is also the refuge for much of China's panda population. The fate of the 130 pandas housed at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center was unknown, Xinhua reported.

Some 20,000 Chinese troops have been deployed to the region, while another 24,000 are scheduled to be airlifted to affected areas, Xinhua reported. Another 3,000 police officers have been activated.

"It looks like they've mounted a pretty monumental effort to do the best that they can there," said Kate Janie, director of Mercy Corps, a humanitarian group channeling disaster aid to the region through a partner agency.

"I think the Chinese government will make very active, proactive, transparent steps in dealing with this."  Grief is spreading as the scope of the disaster is realized. »

Zhenyao said 60,000 tents and 50,000 quilts have been dispatched to the disaster zone.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport reopened Tuesday after authorities inspected its runways for damage following the quake, Xinhua reported. The resumption of air service gives the province additional links for funneling supplies into the badly battered region.

A 40-car freight train, carrying 13 tankers full of gasoline, derailed and caught fire Monday in Gansu province, officials said, according to state-run media, cutting the Baoji-Chengdu railway.


Monday's quake shook the ground in Beijing, 950 miles (1,528 km) away. Residents of the capital, which hosts this year's Olympic Games in August, said they felt a rolling sensation that lasted about a minute. It resulted in the evacuation of thousands of people from Beijing buildings.

A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said no Olympic venues were affected.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/13/china.quake/index.html
Report Spam   Logged
Volitzer
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 11110



« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2008, 01:29:17 am »

Now would be the time to pass out some Democracy literature.

 Cool
Report Spam   Logged
Monique Faulkner
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4107



« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2008, 10:43:09 am »

Report: Woman freed from rubble after 195 hours

Story Highlights
NEW: 60-year-old woman pulled from rubble after 195 hours

Death toll over 40,000, Chinese state media reports

Bush: U.S. stands ready to help in anyway Chinese government wants

China sees three days of national mourning; Olympic torch relay suspended


Next Article in World »


 Read  VIDEO  PHOTOS INTERACTIVE MAP
     
CHENGDU, China (CNN) -- A 60-year-old woman has been found alive after being trapped for 195 hours in the aftermath of the Chinese earthquake. She survived by drinking rainwater and suffered just facial bruises and a minor fracture, The Associated Press reports.




Survivors are still being found against all odds eight days after the devastating quake.

1 of 3more photos »  The woman was identified only by her last name Wang in a report on Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television, AP said.

An air force officer, Xie Ling Long, interviewed on the television channel said the woman was conscious when found Tuesday afternoon, AP reported.

Wang was apparently trapped in a landslide that swept away a temple in the city of Pengzhou. She was able to initially move, but a later aftershock trapped her between two rocks, according to AP.

Her dramatic discovery came hours after rescue teams pulled two men men from the rubble in Sichuan province.

One of the men was found in a mine in Qingchuna county and a second in a hydroelectric plant in Wenchuan county, state-run media reported.

They had been buried for six days and 20 hours and seven days and 11 hours, respectively, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

The rescues give a glimmer of hope amid the rising daily death toll. Official figures show the number of victims has risen to 40,075 in the Sichuan province alone.

Don't Miss
Wave of unity and patriotism sweeps China
Emotions pour into national mourning
Earthquake Special report
China's new disaster openness
Losses compounded by one-child policy
The United States announced Tuesday it would send a shipment of specialized recovery equipment and a team of specialists to southwestern China this week. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) says more than $815,000 worth of additional assistance will be sent to China.

That brings the total USAID assistance to China to more than $1.3 million. Last weekend, the United States sent U.S. Air Force C-17s carrying aid to China, including tents and generators.

After signing a sympathy book with the first lady at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, President Bush vowed to "stand ready to help in any way the Chinese government would like."  Watch dramatic footage of the quake striking Sichuan province »

However strong aftershocks and fears of flash flooding and landslides have been hindering the rescue efforts.Sichuan Seismological Bureau warned residents Monday that a strong aftershock was likely to happen in the province, Xinhua reported.

The bureau said there was a bigger possibility of the aftershock between Monday and Tuesday as it warned local government and people to take precautions.

"You expect to see aftershocks following a major earthquake," said Susan Potter, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, "but they become less frequent and smaller as time goes on." Watch the emotional observance in Chengdu »

Don't Miss
iReport.com: Send us your pictures, stories
Impact Your World
See how you can make a difference 
Potter said the USGS does not issue aftershock predictions.

State media showed people camping on the streets and in city squares after the government-issued aftershock warning.

China's observance of the earthquake came exactly a week after the 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook the county's southwest to its core -- 2:28 p.m. Monday. The quake killed at least 34,073 and injured another 245,109.

The observance erupted into a loud outpouring of emotion among thousands of people in Chengdu, a major city close to the quake's epicenter and the capital of China's Sichuan province.

They ended three minutes of silent observance with cries of grief and shouts of support for the recovery effort.

The observance began three days of mourning in China, including a temporary suspension of the Olympic torch relay.

Chinese seismologists measured a 5.4 magnitude tremor at 2:06 p.m. Monday, Xinhua reported.

Mud flows buried more than 200 relief workers who were working to repair damaged roads in the Sichuan province, Xinhua reported Monday afternoon.


The earthquake severely disrupted power and communication facilities in the Sichuan province, but Chinese officials said Monday they have made major progress in restoring service.

The quake was the worst tremor to strike China in three decades; a 1976 earthquake killed more than 250,000 people.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/20/china.quake/index.html
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy