" Death toll in China earthquake up to nearly 9,000"

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

Well when you know how things are built over there its no big surprise how the death toll is going to be high.
At the same time hard to defend yourself against a 7.8 earthquake

This happening so soon after Myanmar is going to put a big strain on the Aid NGOs

CHONGQING, China - One of the worst earthquakes in decades struck central China on Monday, killing nearly 9,000 people, trapping about 900 students under the rubble of their school and causing a toxic chemical leak, state media reported.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated 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 alone and dozens of other deaths were reported in surrounding areas.

Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Sichuan province's Beichuan county after the quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

State media said a chemical plant in Shifang city had cratered, burying hundreds of people and spilling more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia from the site.

The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand.

It posed a challenge to a government already grappling with discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Beijing Olympics this August.

The quake hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu — a city of 3.75 million — in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

The temblor struck hilly country leading up to the Tibetan highlands, toppling buildings in small cities and towns in the largely rural area. About 1,200 pandas — 80 percent of the surviving wild population in China — live in several mountainous areas of Sichuan.

The earthquake, China's deadliest since 1976, occurred in an area with numerous fault lines that have triggered destructive temblors before. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Diexi, Sichuan that hit on August 25, 1933 killed more than 9,300 people.

Xinhua said 50 bodies had been pulled from the debris of the school building in Juyuan town but did not say if the children were alive. Students also were buried under five other toppled schools in Deyang city, Xinhua reported.

Its reporters saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story building in Juyuan "while others were crying out for help." Two girls were quoted by Xinhua as saying they escaped because they had "run faster than others."

Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school. Other photos posted on the Internet and found on the Chinese search engine Baidu showed arms and a torso sticking out of the rubble of the school as dozens of people worked to free them, using their hands to move concrete slabs.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system and the quake also affected power networks.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," he said.

The road to Wenchuan from Chendu was cut off by landslides, state media said, slowing the rescue efforts.

Though news trickled out in the first hours after the quake, the government and its media quickly mobilized, with nearly 8,000 soldiers and police sent to the area. China Central Television ran non-stop coverage, with phone reports from reporters and a few isolated camera shots from the scene.

Disasters always pose a test to the communist government, whose mandate in part rests on providing relief to those in need. In recent years, the government has improved emergency planning and rapid response training for the military.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

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 an inspection at the venue when the quake occurred. 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.

Skyscrapers swayed in Shanghai and in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

Death toll in China earthquake up to nearly 9,000 - Yahoo! News

[[R-CON]ZZEZ]

Originally Posted by Saobh

This happening so soon after Myanmar is going to put a big strain on the Aid NGOs

The Chinese will survive unlike Myanmar, I doubt they'll let aid workers in.

[markonymous]

ye myanmar probably wont let aid workers in and just let their ppl die. I really hate these types of countries.

[georgehu2007]

this is nothing compared to the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (magnitude 8.0) which killed 830,000 people

[[R-DEV]Masaq]

Originally Posted by georgehu2007

this is nothing compared to the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (magnitude 8.0) which killed 830,000 people

Yeah, sure that's really REALLY great consolation to those who've lost entire families or communities. How the hell would you feel if somebody said that when US or British servicemen are killed - "That's nothing compared to the battles of the Peninsula Campaign of 1808-1812 - when tens of thousands would die in a single battle".

[[R-PUB]MrD]

The chinese are fully capable of mounting rescue operations in their own areas of control that will lessen deaths after the event thankfully. They care about each other on that level and I'm sure they'd even allow specialists in for discussions and help on planning (regarding experience and modern techniques) even if they can manage the grunt work themselves.

Their reactions to this will show that the image the west has of a disparate class system and assumed poverty isn't the only level you look at to decide on a countries self worth. It is the action and assumed cost of preventing people dying needlessly that in action is enough to swing peoples thoughts.

They walked......

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.

and they ran

"The traffic is not good because a lot of the roads were ... seriously damaged," Guo said on Tuesday. "The army people -- they were just running there to get the stuff in and the injured people out."

You can tell they care.

And this is a difficult one, but an immediate response to this? :

Forty-eight tourists made their way out of the region on foot and arrived in Dujiangyan on Tuesday, state-run media said. Among the stranded tourists were 15 Britons.

Escaping on foot to safety and trying to get home is one thing. There is a reason every person needs to learn even basic first aid, survival skills, keep fit. It is for when the worst happens. I wouldn't care about my 'scheduled' flight home, I'd have stayed to clear the collapsed buildings, to offer first aid and emotional support to the people (unless directly ordered out) But then my idea of foreign holidays is living as the countries residents do. I'm not the commercial tourist as such. Memories of beautiful countryside and a fly by tour will never have the same impact as staying to help briefly after something like this. They are the experiences that build you up for life. Get off your couch and learn to be self sufficient and a benefit in a crisis, for these are the things that make life colourful and beautiful.

[[R-MOD]dunehunter]

Atleast they're actually doing something. My hatred for the *********************************** running Myanmar/Burma knows no words.

[fludblud]

Originally Posted by [R-PUB]MrD

The chinese are fully capable of mounting rescue operations in their own areas of control that will lessen deaths after the event thankfully. They care about each other on that level and I'm sure they'd even allow specialists in for discussions and help on planning (regarding experience and modern techniques) even if they can manage the grunt work themselves.

quite true, being resourceful in a situation can save lives.

hell i remember back earlier this year during the snowstorms in china, many roads were frozen solid but there were no snow ploughs so they had the PLA drive their tanks along the roads to grind up the ice so it could be shoveled away.

living in hong kong i was well within the radius of being able to feel the earthquake but i didnt, supreme commander might have something to do with it.

[georgehu2007]

Originally Posted by [R-MOD]Masaq

Yeah, sure that's really REALLY great consolation to those who've lost entire families or communities. How the hell would you feel if somebody said that when US or British servicemen are killed - "That's nothing compared to the battles of the Peninsula Campaign of 1808-1812 - when tens of thousands would die in a single battle".

my point is that with the better quality infrastructure in China today, casualty figures for a major earthquake have been drastically reduced.

[agentscar]

now,Yahoo is saying the death toll is nearly 12,000