China: Quake left 18,000 buried in one city
Official temblor death toll stands at nearly 12,000, but figure likely to rise
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Chinese rescuers search a collapsed building for survivors in Beichuan, in southwest China’s Sichuan province on Tuesday, after an earthquake measuring 7.9 rocked the province.
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China quake
A powerful temblor kills thousands and leaves devastation and injury in southwest China.
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May 13, 2008
DUJIANGYAN, China – Rescue workers were digging through flattened homes and schools Tuesday in a desperate search for victims of China’s worst earthquake in three decades. Authorities said nearly 12,000 people were killed and more than 18,000 are missing.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Chinese rescue workers reported that 18,645 people remain buried under debris in Mianyang city. Mianyang neighbors the epicenter of Monday’s massive, 7.9-magnitude quake.
Xinhua said that 3,629 people have been confirmed dead in Mianyang. It was immediately clear whether those figures are included in the official death toll of 11,921 so far.
Earlier Tuesday, state media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county — where the number of casualties was still unknown
But rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a mission to the area due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported.
At least 4,800 people remained buried in Mianzhu, 60 miles from the epicenter, Xinhua said, citing local authorities.
The casualty figures were expected to rise and remained uncertain due to the remote areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.
‘Time is of the essence’
The tremors caused a wide swath of damage across central China, sending people fleeing with their few salvaged belongings. Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings, and some 34,000 troops swarmed into the region to help.
But hope was fleeting as bodies covered with sheets lined streets and filled schoolyards. Only 58 people were extricated from collapsed buildings across the quake area, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua, as rescuers raced to save more.
“Time is of the essence,” said Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, adding that rescue efforts could take a week.
“Survivors can hold on for some time. Now it’s not time to give up,” Wang told reporters in Beijing.
Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in the city of Chengdu. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude 4 and 6, some of the strongest since Monday’s quake.
A 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still burning Tuesday, Xinhua said, with no word on casualties.
‘I don’t know where I’ll live’
Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.
“My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed,” he said.
“I am going to Chengdu, but I don’t know where I’ll live.”
Zhou and other survivors were pulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.
Just east of the epicenter, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county — a more than six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. The deaths were separate from another leveled school in Dujiangyan where 900 students are feared dead.
Xinhua said up to 5,000 people were killed and 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan, in a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan’s provincial capital of Chengdu. The government has poured more than 16,000 troops into the area with tens of thousands more on the way.
In Dujiangyan, rescue teams were trying to get to a woman who was eight months pregnant and trapped in a seven-story apartment building that collapsed.
Nearby, a man in his late 50s who refused to give his name, said his father was missing in the rubble of his home. “Yesterday, when the earthquake happened our home collapsed really quickly and I heard my father yell, ‘Help, help, help,’” the man said.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible.
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“We must try our best to open up roads to the epicenter and rescue people trapped in disaster-hit areas,” he told an early morning emergency meeting in Dujiangyan.
China’s Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the victims of the quake.
Fifteen missing British tourists were believed in that area at the time of the quake and were “out of reach,” Xinhua reported.
They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said. Xinhua reported that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.
Another event to tarnish Olympic run-up
The disaster comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Olympics. The tragedy is just the latest event to tarnish the run-up to the event meant to showcase China’s rise that has been marked by internal strife and anti-China sentiment abroad.
The Olympics torch relay will continue unaltered through the quake-affected area next month, Beijing organizers said.
Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and the European Union, among others.
The government said it would welcome outside aid. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said relief authorities “are ready to make contact with relevant countries and organizations.”
Russia was sending a plane with rescuers and aid, the country’s Interfax news agency reported.
Aid, but not aid workers, welcome
But Wang, the disaster relief official, said international aid workers would not be allowed to travel to the affected area.
“We welcome funds and supplies, we can’t accommodate personnel at this point,” he said.
China’s Ministry of Finance said it had allocated around $123 million in aid for quake-hit areas.
The quake was China’s deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976.
Financial analysts said the quake would have only a limited impact on the country’s booming economy.
中国红十字会总会救灾专用账号和热线：
１、通过银行捐款开户单位：中国红十字会总会
人民币开户行：中国工商银行北京分行东四南支行
人民币账号：０２００００１００９０１４４１３２５２
外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行
外币账号：７１１２１１１４８２６０００００２０９
２、通过邮局捐款收款人：
中国红十字会总会地址：北京市东城区北新桥三条８号 邮政编码：１００００７
３、通过网上捐款登陆中国红十字会总会网站：
ｈｔｔｐ：／／ｒｅｄｃｒｏｓｓ．ｏｒｇ．ｃｎ点击进入”网上捐赠”栏目，按照提示操作即可。
４、通过短信捐款：
中国移动、中国联通手机用户以及中国电信、中国网通小灵通用户均可编辑短信１或２，发送至１０６９９９９３０１，即向”红十字救援行动”捐款１元钱或２元钱。（通过银行、邮局和网上捐款在捐款时请注明捐款人姓名、通信地址、捐款意向如：四川地震捐款等信息，以便邮寄捐赠收据和感谢信）
５、通过短信咨询：
中国移动、中国联通手机用户以及中国电信、中国网通小灵通用户均可编辑短信”中国红十字会”，发送至１２１１４，即可了解中国红十字会有关情况。
中国红十字会总会捐赠热线和查询电话：
捐赠热线：０１０－６５１３９９９９、６４０２７６２０（白天）。
中国红十字基金会同时也接受社会各界捐赠：
地址：北京市东城区东单北大街干面胡同５３号
邮编：１０００１０
银行汇款：
户名：中国红十字基金会开户银行：
中国银行北京分行账号：８００１００９２１９０８０９１００１
开户银行：中国工商银行北京东四南支行账号：０２００００１０１９０１４４８３８７４
开户银行：中国建设银行北京朝内大街支行账号：１１００１０７０３０００５９０００４２７
外币开户银行：中国银行账号：８００１０００８６６０８０９１０１４
1. Red Cross Society of China
The Hotline number: +86-10-65139999 & +86-10-64027620
Cash Donations: Payment by mail
Red Cross Society of China
Add: 8,Beixinqiao San Tiao Dongcheng District Beijing 100007 China
———————————————————————-
Cash Donations: Money Transfer
RMB Account:
Bank: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China,DongSiNan Branch,Beijing
Acct.Number: 0200001009014413252
Acct Name: Red Cross Society of China
Address: No.147 Dongsi South St.
Beijing, China
Zip Code: 100010
Swift Code: ICBKCNBJBJM
USD Account:
Bank: China CITIC Bank Beijing Jiuxianqiao Sub-Branch
Acct.Number: 7112111482600000209
Acct Name: Red Cross Society of China
Address: C&W Tower. No.14,
Jiuxianqiao Street, Chaoyang District，
Beijing, China
Zip Code: 100016
Swift Code：CIBKCNBJ100
TEL:86-10-64319780
2. China Charity Federation
Tel: (010)66083191 66083260, 66055848
Fax: (010)66083264
Add: Xinlong Mansion, No.33, Erlong Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100032, China
Post Code: 100032
Homepage: www.chinacharity.cn
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Cash Donations: Money Transfer
RMB bank account:
Name: China Charity Federation
Bank Account: 0200002809014450409
Bank Name: Xisi Branch, Beijing, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
USD bank account:
Name: China Charity Federation
Bank Account: 00100914908091014
Bank Name: Bank of China head office(No.1 Fuxing-Men-Nei Street,Xicheng District)
