Posted on 05/14/2008 4:29:09 PM PDT by blam
China earthquake: Exodus begins from Sichuan
By Richard Spencer in Hanwang Town, Sichuan Province
Last Updated: 11:05PM BST 14/05/2008
Tens of thousands of people have poured down from the mountainsides of Sichuan searching for food and water as rescuers evacuated towns where more than 40,000 people are dead, buried or missing. Rescue teams are digging through rubble, trying to reach survivors of a powerful earthquake in China.
Helicopters began to airlift residents out of the villages of Wenchuan county at the epicentre of the earthquake which struck China on Monday, while others walked for hours into the valleys and plains to the south and east. The county is still cut off from land-based relief by landslides.
But the exodus might yet be heading into more danger, with emergency workers attempting to plug gaps in two major dams.
The Zipingpu dam, above the city of Dujiangyan with its population of 600,000, was said at one stage to be in an "extremely dangerous state" with cracks more than four inches wide appearing in its face, though the water resources ministry later said on its website that it was stable for the time being.
Tulong dam, further north on the Min river, was said by officials to be near collapse, something which would have a knock-on effect on a series of dams and power stations further downstream.
Almost 400 dams altogether were said to have been affected by Monday's earthquake – the wet and mountainous province is criss-crossed by some of China's biggest and fastest-flowing rivers.
While some dams, like Zipingpu, are modern, others were built when construction standards were lower.
All day long, the 100,000 troops now assigned to the rescue effort grappled with the wreckage of major cities, towns and villages across a wide area.
There were some successes, including the rescue of a three-year-old girl in Beichuan, one of the worst-affected towns, and an eight-months pregnant woman trapped under an apartment block in Dujiangyan.
But by the evening the official death toll stood at nearly 15,000, with another 25,000 reported buried and more unaccounted for.
In Wenchuan, a paramilitary officer told local television that a third of houses had been destroyed and 90 per cent damaged.
Meanwhile, the survivors were starting to look ever more desperately for supplies, walking for hours out of their mountain villages to seek help.
"There is nothing left of my village," said Fu Yuanming, who had walked for 10 hours from Village Number 3 of Qingping district near the epicentre to Hanwang town. "We need help. Our people have nothing to eat, they have nothing to drink."
He said a landslide had blocked the river above the village, turning into a reservoir that was about to burst.
Along all the roads in the region, makeshift camps have been set up. Residents of the towns lined up patiently as fire engines served out buckets of water; in the villages, locals ran out into the road to forcibly stop trucks and beg for supplies of noodles and biscuits.
"Someone had better set up relief coordination, or the people will resort to robbery," said one man in the village of Wudu.
More than 10,000 people were crowded into the sports stadium in the city of Mianyang, Sichuan's second biggest city and an important base for China's high-tec industry. Many had walked from Beichuan.
Ralph Johnson, a British teacher who lives in the city and runs a pub there, said that almost a million people were now spending their days on the streets. That included the city's 800,000 population, many of whom were like him unable to return to their damaged flats, and thousands more refugees.
He was also waiting to hear news of the mountain primary school for which his regulars have raised funds, and which feeds a secondary school known to have collapsed with up to 1,000 dead.
"We have not heard anything from the school," he said.
A British embassy rapid response unit began work in the provincial capital Chengdu to help coordinate the search for tourists trapped in the region. Nineteen members of a Kuoni tour party that were on their way to the Wolong giant panda reserve near Wenchuan when the earthquake hit were still unaccounted for last night.
There were unconfirmed reports that a group of 50 tourists had been located at the reserve, and 12 Americans who had been missing spoke to Worldwide Fund for Nature officials by satellite phone.
But Sir William Ehrman, the British ambassador, told The Daily Telegraph that there had still been no contact with the British group.
"We are extremely concerned," he said. "We are trying all we can to locate those who are unaccounted for."
The Zipingpu dam, above the city of Dujiangyan with its population of 600,000, was said at one stage to be in an "extremely dangerous state" with cracks more than four inches wide appearing in its face, though the water resources ministry later said on its website that it was stable for the time being. Tulong dam, further north on the Min river, was said by officials to be near collapse, something which would have a knock-on effect on a series of dams and power stations further downstream. Almost 400 dams altogether were said to have been affected by Monday's earthquake – the wet and mountainous province is criss-crossed by some of China's biggest and fastest-flowing rivers. While some dams, like Zipingpu, are modern, others were built when construction standards were lower.
To quote Scooby: Ruh roh.
In much of the USA, the robbery would begin five minutes after the power went out, and go downhilll from there.
Maybe, maybe not.
In those places where the populace has been dependent on government for everything for generations, Yeah, about five minutes.
In those places where the populace has been dependent on themselves for generations, it might never start.
Except for situations in which denizens of “Region A” migrate to “Region B” after pickings in “Region A” get slim.
Until the denizens of “Region B” convince them otherwise.
This is going to get so much worse before it gets any better.
I stay up at night pondering how on earth the PRC is going to remedy this.
That’s the plot of my new book.
If the dams start breaking in a chain reaction, Act II might be worse than Act I.
I just noted one little aside above, where somebody mentioned that a landslide had created a “temporary resevoir” in a river. An instant landslide dam is even worse than their old earthen dams.
Are you flummoxed by W's offer of only half a mil in aid to China? That's pretty tacky (disclosure: I am a 3/5s Bushbot.)
No, I’m not. Can’t explain it right now, but that’s my initial reaction.
*sigh*
We’d send more but most of our money is already there?
I guess I'd rather him have said 'we can offer you aid' instead of putting a price tag on it.
What they need is our engineering help, not money.
They can kiss the Olympics goodbye, when everything comes to light.
— Alert: in this dispatch of the town again Yingxiuwan a strong aftershocks, some in the last earthquake in the collapse of the housing does not appear to collapse, landslides near the mountain.
Alert: Yingxiuwan town a strong aftershock of the collapse of a housing collapse
— Alert: in this dispatch of the town again Yingxiuwan a strong aftershocks, some in the last earthquake in the collapse of the housing does not appear to collapse, landslides near the mountain.
Are you Chinese still able to get through to US websites? Y’all seem to have dropped off since yesterday.
What’s the food situation? Are soldiers still backpacking it in or has the weather cleared enough to do aerial drops?
Are the people getting tents dropped?
Considering China's GDP and population, they don't need our aid. They have more than enough money and people to handle the situation IF THEY CHOOSE TO SEND THEM.
i hope chinese is good!
and they are stanchly pull through!!!!
chinese not need your;s baleful pitying.
chinese government pay rmb:877,000,000
and society willing donation rmb:850,000,000
and have more people donation blood and material.
so i beleive ,chinese will live through hard!
corporately,love
Why would we give China anything(?), they are at war with us. Nobody wants to say that though.
Noodles I can understand -- but cookies?
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