China:Massive earthquake srtikes central region, Chendgu airport reopens

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(Free-Press-Release.com) May 12, 2008 -- China:Update:Massive earthquake srtikes central region kills at least 8500; Chendgu airport reopens for some flights

CHENGDU, China :A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and a chemical plant in central China on Monday, killing more than 8,700 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the worst quake in three decades.

The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in mid-afternoon, it emptie d office buildings across the country in Beijing, could be felt as far away as Vietnam and in Chengdu crashed telephone networks and hours later left parts of the city of 10 million in darkness.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported 8,533 people died in Sichuan alone and 216 others in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing.
Worst affected were four counties including the quake's epicenter in Wenchuan, 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Chengdu. Landslides blocked the roads early Tuesday, causing the government to order soldiers into the area on foot, state television said, while heavy rains prevented four military helicopters from landing.

Snippets from state media and photos posted on the Internet underscored the immense scale of the devastation. In Juyuan town, south of the epicenter, a high school collapsed, burying as many as 900 students and killing at least 50, Xinhua said. Photos showed people using cranes, mechanical hoists a nd their hands to remove slabs of concrete and steel.
Xinhua described buried teenagers struggling to break free from the rubble ``while others were crying out for help.'' Families waited in the rain near the wreckage, as rescuers wrote the names of the dead on a blackboard, Xinhua said.

To the east, in Beichuan county, 80 percent of the buildings collapsed, and 10,000 people were injured aside from 3,000 to 5,000 dead, Xinhua said. It and other state media said a chemical plant in Shifang city cratered, burying hundreds of people and spilling more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia from the site.

Though slow to release information at first, the government and its state media ramped up quickly. Nearly 20,000 soldiers, police and reservists were sent to the disaster area, with some going on foot because roads were impassable.

Disasters always pose a test to the communist government, whose mandate rests heavily on maintaining order, delivering eco nomic growth and providing relief in emergencies.
Pressure for a rapid response was particularly intense this year, as the government was already grappling with public discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Beijing Olympics this August.

In Chengdu, the region's commercial center, the airport closed for seven hours, reopening only for emergency and a few outbound flights. A major railway line to the northeast was ruptured. Though by nightfall most of the power had been restored, phone and Internet service was spotty and some neighborhoods remained without power and water.
Nervous Chengdu residents spent the night outside, some playing cards, or headed to the suburbs. State media citing the Sichuan seismology bureau reported 313 aftershocks.

Mianyang city ordered all able-bodied males under 50 years old to take water and tools and wa lk or drive to Beichuan, where most of the buildings had collapsed.
State television broadcast tips for anyone trapped in the earthquake. ``If you're buried, keep calm and conserve your energy. Seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue,'' CCTV said.

China's massive Three Gorges dam, the world's largest about 350 miles (575 kilometers) to the east of the epicenter, was not affected by the earthqua ke, a Ms. Diao from the information office of State Council Three Gorges Construction Committee said. The area around the enormous dam remains increasingly precarious as rising waters in the enormous reservoir have led to landslides.
Premier Wen, after arriving in Chengdu, traveled to Dujiangyan, near the collapsed middle school. He appealed for people to rally together.
``This is an especially challenging task,'' state television showed Wen saying, reading from a statement. ``In the face of the disaster, what's most important is calmness, confidence, courage and powerful command.''
The quake was the deadliest since the most devastating in modern history, which killed 240,000 people in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976.

A 1933 quake near the area where Monday's struck killed at least 9,000, according to geologists.

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