Rescue workers search for victims in debris in Dujiangyan, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted nearby Wenchuan County at 14:28 Monday. [Xinhua]
Yesterdays earthquake in southern China was also noticeable here in Beijing. I was working at home yesterday and suddenly in the afternoon the doorbell rang and there was banging on the door. It was Security and reception people shouting: "Emergency, emergency - go out quick". So we got all evacuated into the garden and playground outside our apartments. I did not notice the quake but some people I spoke to living on the 27th floor said that the house was swaying quite a bit.
The epicenter of the earthquake, was in Sichuan Province the death tolls reported so far today exceeded 12,000.
Military doctors and soldiers have started to search for survivors and treat injured people at the Yinxiu County of Wenchuan, 20 kilometers from Dujiangyan city.
The road from Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, to Wenchuan, the epicenter, was blocked by rocks and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams. Sichuan provincial officials said more than one third of the buildings and houses in Wenchuan were leveled off. The casualties there remain unknown.
The epicenter of the earthquake, was in Sichuan Province the death tolls reported so far today exceeded 12,000.
Military doctors and soldiers have started to search for survivors and treat injured people at the Yinxiu County of Wenchuan, 20 kilometers from Dujiangyan city.
The road from Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, to Wenchuan, the epicenter, was blocked by rocks and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams. Sichuan provincial officials said more than one third of the buildings and houses in Wenchuan were leveled off. The casualties there remain unknown.
A boy is rescued from the debris of a collapsed building in Dujiangyan.
Soldiers from the Chengdu Military Command have chosen to walk to the areas with heaviest damage inflicted by the quake.
The 7.8-magnitude tremor devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep and forestry hills northwestern of Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in mid-afternoon on Monday, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing and Shanghai and could be felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand.
At least 4,800 people remained buried in Mianzhu, 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the epicenter, Xinhua said, citing local authorities. The casualty figures are expected to rise and remained uncertain due to the remote areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.
The killer quake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants, trapping unknown numbers in mounds of concrete, steel, wooden frames, bricks and earth in China's worst earthquake in three decades.
Just in a few weeks this is the second nature disaster striking this part of the world. Trying to rescue people in Burma is still going on and now the world community have got another area where a lot of help also is needed.
What are we doing to the nature striking back to us in this way... ?????
