Posted on 05/17/2008 3:37:20 PM PDT by fanfan
DONGHEKOU, China – Two rivers blocked by landslides threatened to flood towns shattered by China's massive earthquake, sending thousands of survivors fleeing today in a region still staggering from the country's worst disaster in 30 years.
A mountain sheared off by the mighty tremor cut the Qingzhu river and swallowed the riverside village of Donghekou whole, entombing an unknown number of people inside a huge mound of brown earth.
Compounding the horror for survivors, a lake rising behind the wall of debris threatens to break its banks and send torrents cascading into villages downstream.
Pannicky residents streamed out of the entire county on the northern edge of the quake zone, spurred on by mobile phone text messages sent en masse by local government officials warning that the water level was rising and people downstream were being evacuated.
In the town of Beichuan, 60 miles to the south, thousands fled as the reports circulated.
Rescue work resumed later in the day and experts were monitoring the river above Beichuan, the People's Daily newspaper said on its web site. The swift exodus underscored the jitters running through the disaster zone. A strong aftershock – the second in two days and measured by the U.S. Geological Survey at magnitude 5.7 – shook the area early Sunday for 45 seconds, causing people to run into the streets.
In all the devastation wrought by the quake, little looks as bleak as Donghekou.
The road to the village ends in a tangled twist of metal and tar. In the small valley below, the village itself has disappeared when the mountain collapsed. Locals said two other villages further upstream, Ciban and Kangle, had suffered the same fate. The three villages were home to about 300 families, locals said.
Eerie and still, the remaining landscape has few signs of human life – a soiled green floral scarf, a rubber pipe, a log.
"Oh God! I have lost everything," said Wen Xiaoying, 32, whose voice shook as she surveyed the valley below for the first time since returning from far-off Guangdong province where she worked.
She held up one hand as she ticked off the family members that died – her father, her mother, her sister and her brother-in-law – all of them buried somewhere in the muck before her.
"When I saw them the last time, we celebrated together," said Wen, a glimmer of a smile showing through as she remembered happier days. "I didn't expect it would be the last time I saw them.''
Su Ciyao trudged over the bend in plastic slippers, carrying a plastic rice bag stuffed with salvaged clothes.
"My village is over there," the 44-year-old said, gesturing to the swollen earth behind him. Asked where his family was, he could only shake his head.
"Only me," he said, and then set off without a backward glance.
Drizzling rain in the valley added to the gloom, and to the fear of carloads of people who clogged the twisting mountain roads as they streamed out of the region.
The government's daily update added another few thousand bodies to the death toll as it continued climbing toward an expected final tally of at least 50,000. Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said 28,881 deaths have been confirmed so far.
The official Xinhua News Agency, citing regional officials, said more than 10,600 people were known to be still buried almost one week after the 7.9 magnitude quake hit, shattering thousands of buildings in dozens of towns and cities in Sichuan province.
The number of security forces helping victims rose to almost 150,000, and the government added cash payments to victims to its response.
The government would give $715 in compensation to each family that lost a member in the earthquake, China National Radio reported today on its web site. At a State Council meeting hosted by Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing, the government also decided it would also hand out a daily ration of food and $1.4 to survivors, the report said.
Almost a week after the quake struck, rescues were still occurring.
Rescuers pulled at least seven more survivors from collapsed buildings, the last a man saved after 128 hours. Both of his legs had to be amputated. Another, 20-year-old highway worker Jiang Yuhang was pulled free shortly after his mother arrived from a neighboring province.
"I was expecting to see my son's body. I never expected to see him alive," his mother, Long Jinyu, said on state television.
Experts say buried earthquake survivors can last a week or more, depending on factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink, but that the chances of survival diminish rapidly after the first 24 hours.
Nearly a week after the quake, soldiers who first arrived with little but shovels were better supplied. In the town of Longhua, rescuers worked through the day, using saws, drills, torches and hands, to free 31-year-old Bian Gengfeng from the wreckage of a six-story apartment building.
A man rescued from the same site Friday told rescuers that he had been talking with a woman still trapped, setting off today's effort.
"Uncle called me yesterday and said 'mom was alive' and I should come and wait here," said 10-year-old Luo Ting, who watched her mother being rescued.
Rescue teams from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Russia worked alongside Chinese troops, and more international aid was arriving, including a U.S. Air Force cargo plane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals.
I just can't imagine what it is like for them.
They are still having mag 6 aftershocks. They must be terrified with every rumble. This is so so sad.
One day the same thing is gong to happen here.
It is only a matter of time, and it is more likely than not that will be during our life time.
The only thing we can do for them is pray.
The sheer number of people affected is staggering. Where do you start?
When this first happened I pondered how critical cell phones could be charged, what with the survivor's chargers buried in rubble and no electricity.
Some of our temporary Chinese freepers described temporary lakes being created by landslide and scree onto rivers that would eventually break.
Prayers and tears.
ping
I know.
It’s worrisome.
We can do very little; they have to stick together, and help each other.
Yeah, I read on one of the threads that 2 mountains collapsed and buried the low lying village between them. This quake changed the landscape. Like the new madrid quake created reelfoot lake.
*
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2017450/posts
thanks for all who care about wenchuan earthquake
Thanks for the ping. I’m reading reports that even those with homes left are not sleeping in them for fear.
It’s said that they are in short supply of tents for people.
I don’t know if you saw the thread I started very early this morning. (Mods deleted it I guess because it had not flooded the area out yet.)
Anyhow the earlier reports said that if it breaks or overflows that it will create a 24 mile path of destruction.
Hopefully by now they have most of the people out of the way of it. I also read that they were trying to figure out a way to make a controlled break in it. But it sounds like it is just too dangerous to even attempt a controlled break in it.
I should rephrase that:
When the quake first happened on Monday, I pondered how the people SHOULD/COULD maintain communications given their chargers were likely buried. I think deep-cycle marines with inverters dropped down in areas without electricity,
and 100 each of the most commonly used cell phones’ chargers.
It rained for two days after the quake, they couldn’t get in to drop food, let alone batteries.
......Mods deleted it I guess .......
Is it true that Frank Burns is in charge of the mods today? Hotlips”
When the Wabash farted a month ago, for a full second I thought the New Madrid had given way, and that was a moment I don't care to repeat any time soon....
Oh, no,....
I’m sorry.
I liked your post, and I figured that if I pinged you an *, people would check back to read your post.
Next time, I’ll use words.
It must be terrifying.
Quake-caused lake bursts in China, no casualties reported
May 18th, 2008 - 5:35 am ICT by admin - Email This Post
Xinhua
Dujiangyan (China), May 18 (Xinhua) A barrier lake, which was formed by the blocking of a river following the quake in Sichuan province burst but no casualty has been reported, disaster relief officials said late Saturday. The lake formed in the upper reaches of the Jianjiang River in Pengzhou city with a volume of 1.6 million cubic meters burst Saturday afternoon, according to the quake relief headquarters.
The lake-burst did not cause any casualties as the people in the downstream had been evacuated in time, the officials said, adding that a reservoir downstream was also discharged water in advance so as to receive the water from the lake.
Many barrier lakes formed after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake caused landslides, which blocked rivers at several places.
Experts were also closely monitoring another barrier lake in Beihcuan County. The lake was threatening the regions downstream.
There had been no burst of reservoirs in the quake-hit areas, the headquarters’ team in charge of water facilities assured.
Liu Ning, engineer-in-chief at the ministry of water resources, told Xinhua Saturday that some water facility projects, such as reservoirs and hydroelectric stations suffered damages following the quake.
To prevent new disasters, the ministry had dispatched 25 work teams to check affected reservoirs, Liu added.
The disaster relief headquarter said at least 7,227 people have died in Beichuan after the earthquake. Some 5,894 people are still missing.
Meanwhile, at the Hongguang Township in Qingchuan County, authorities have evacuated some 2,000 people downstream of the Qingzhu River amid fears of flooding.
Xinhua
wow!
no source...
CHENGDU, China — Thousands of earthquake survivors fled tent camps and villages across the ravaged landscape of southwestern China on Saturday after the government warned that several lakes and rivers were getting dangerously close to overflowing because landslides have blocked water flow.
couldn't they drop the build up over a couple of days?
.
Thanks for the posts.
lol - you do know what ‘*’ usually means, right?
lol
Oahhhh .. what a horrible week this has been.
I believe these floods are coming from the “temporary” lakes caused by the landslides.
I wonder what the govt will do with all the homeless families?
Drop it to where?
That’s the problem.
No.
(oh my goodness)
Did I say something bad?
and some damns might have been cracked too. That would the worst nightmare. Time for China to open their wallet and kill a few contractors to send a message for new buildings.
Thats the one that really worries me.
Interesting how our military seems to be more and more becoming the rescuers. I remember the pictures from Bam, Iran.
why haven’t they begun to lower the water behind the dam?
couldn’t they drop the build up over a couple of days?
***************************************************
They’ve got the army in there with pails of spackle and caulk... nothing to see here ,, just move on...
Pray the dams hold....
I’ve asked that question a lot too- from what I have read- Three Gorges is roughly 65 miles from the quake zone. So far- the only information I’ve found is that the dam is fine- no damage. We’ll see.
One wonders how much/if any radiation might be leaking from various nuke facilities too..
Prayers for the people there- it’s all beyond belief.
Following this to its logical conclusion, even beyond the threats of the dams, people are lacking food and water. Worse, out of desperation they're going to drink dirty water. Their immune systems will be lowered because of the lack of food, water and stress and with tens of thousands of corpses lying unburied, the risk of cholera and other pestilences is going to be very high.
This hasn't even begun to be over yet possibly.
I guess it's best to hope this wasn't like an avalanche and the force of the earth quickly killed everyone otherwise they were simply entombed and they all slowly suffocated.
Actually, we may be looking at the cause and effect backward here. For the last year I've read plenty of speculation that the reason that there were more earthquakes up to this point is that 40 BILLION gallons of water, well, weighs a ton. it's stressing the Earth and mountains around the dam and causing a greater prevalence of minor quakes, villages having to be abandoned, landslides, houses with cracks appearing from floor to ceiling overnight and more.
The dam may have caused the earthquake, not vice versa.
FYI: The massive Three Gorges dam, the world’s largest, is about 350 miles east of the epicenter.
The epicenter of the quake was 350 miles from the Three Gorges dam.
Thanks for the major mileage correction. I can thank AP for yet another NONfact published as fact. I spent some time the morning of the quake poring over some maps trying to learn the distance and it seemed a good bit further than 60 miles- but was (foolishly) taking AP’s word for it.
It’s amazing- I’d read about the possibility that the dam systems may be responsible as well. An engineering catastrophe if it’s ever proven. 40 billion gallons...whew..like everything with China- the sheer size simply boggles my mind.
I'm not sure if it would have helped the Chinese to recharge their cell phones, but I have a new hand-crank radio for emergencies that has a flashlight, siren, and cell phone charger on it (among other features). I got it from the Red Cross, cost about $65. This way if the electric goes out, I can still charge my phone, find the candles, etc.
Since my area would be affected by the New Madrid fault, and since I live in tornado alley, I thought it might be a good general preparation item.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, it was made in China.
The Three Gorges Dam’s reservoir is large enough to cause small localized tremors as the lake settles. However, it is absolutely not enough to cause an earthquake. The 7.9 earthquake in Chengdu was caused by the entire land mass of Indian Ocean plate slowly grinding into the Eurasian Plate. We are talking about big chunks of the planets crust here. An artificial lake compared to that is nothing.
Environmentalists are wont to scream bloody murder about the dam, but it is the best of all worse choices. It provides over 22,500 Megawatts of power with it’s massive turbines. To give you an idea of how much electricity that is, it’s the equivalent of 11 Hoover Dams, or about 23 large nuclear reactors. More importantly, the dam doesn’t use any fuel and saves an ungodly amount of coal per year.
Thanks for the pings, and the info from you both.
Bump to read later
Horrific irony.
When the (and I’ve read 5 million) homeless have to march 75 miles to neighboring family or transportation out of these counties that the PLA had to march in to - hopefully the soldiers gave them the best respective routes out: those that have dense tree canopy for sleeping in the rain, good flowing streams for drinking. You won’t starve to death marching for 7 days, but de-hydration will get you.
The sheer numbers are horrifying...and to think each one represents a human with loved ones, a life lived in community, a story all its own, stilled forever...
Prayers for all those in this tragedy.
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