Heavy Rain hampers rescuers as China quake toll nears 10,000
Pastor Dale Morgan
Heavy Rain hampers rescuers as China quake toll nears 10,000*
Reuters - 32 minutes ago
DUJIANGYAN, China - Heavy rainfall and wrecked roads hampered rescuers'
efforts to reach the areas hardest-hit by China's worst earthquake in
three decades on Tuesday as the death toll rose to nearly 10,000.
State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to
soar, with Xinhua saying 10,000 people remained buried in the Mianzhu
area of Sichuan province.
Xinhua did not make clear if some of those buried were included in the
overall death toll.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to Sichuan, ordered troops to
clear roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100 km from the provincial
capital Chengdu that was the quake's epicentre, Xinhua news agency said.
Damage from Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake left the area completely cut off.
But rain and thick clouds meant that military helicopters dispatched to
the area could not yet land, and if the weather remained overcast
soldiers mobilised to help with rescue work would try to parachute in.
State television showed highways buckled and caved in from the quake and
massive rockslides lining the roads.
In the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan -- about midway between Chengdu and
the epicentre -- there were scenes of devastation, with buildings
reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets, some only partially covered.
Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and military trucks able to
do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residents simply stood beside
their wrecked homes, cradling possessions in their arms, and many
huddled in relief tents under heavy rain.
"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well as children," said a
hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to a building in ruins.
Mattresses and household objects could be seen poking through the rubble.
"How could they survive that?" she asked.
Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from
homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished by the quake, which
rolled from Sichuan across much of China.
In the same city, about 900 teenagers were buried under a collapsed
three-storey school building. Premier Wen bowed three times in grief
before some of the first 50 bodies pulled out, Xinhua reported.
"Not one minute can be wasted," said Wen, a trained geologist. "One
minute, one second could mean a child's life."
Frantic relatives tried to push past a line of soldiers surrounding the
school, desperate for news of their children.
"We're still pulling out people alive, but many, many have died," said
one medical worker.
At a second school in Dujiangyan, fewer than 100 of 420 students
survived, Xinhua reported.
The initial tremor, which the U.S. Geological Survey upgraded to
magnitude 7.9 from 7.8, was followed by a series of aftershocks, which
shook the area through the night.
"Some are still very strong," said a Dujiangyan resident. "We have put
up tents outside to sleep in."
A group of about 15 British tourists were out of reach near the quake's
epicentre, likely in Wolong, an area famous for its Giant Panda research
centre, Xinnhua reported.
"TIME IS LIFE"
China's benchmark stock index traded down after the quake, which forced
suspension of trading in the shares of 66 companies.
However, analysts said they did not expect a major economic impact from
the disaster though it could mean supply shortages that fuel inflation,
already at a near 12-year high.
China's Communist Party leadership announced that coping with the
devastating quake and ensuring that it did not threaten social stability
were now the government's priorities.
"Time is life," said an official announcement from the Communist Party
Standing Committee. "Make fighting the earthquake and rescue work the
current top task."
The Sichuan quake was the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan
tremor in north-eastern China where up to 300,000 died. Then, unlike
now, the Communist Party kept a tight lid on information about the
extent of the disaster.
Neighbouring areas were also affected, with 189 reported dead in the
north-western province of Gansu, 92 killed in Shaanxi province and
school collapses in the municipality of Chongqing.
In Gansu, the quake caused a train to derail, spilling petrol tanks and
sparking a fire, Xinhua reported.
In Sichuan's Shifang, where the quake sparked a major chemical leak of
liquid ammonia, about 600 people died and as many as 2,300 remained
buried, Xinhua said.
In Chengdu, many residents slept outside or in cars as aftershocks shook
the city. On Tuesday, most shops were shuttered and authorities were
evacuating hotels and big buildings.
"At this time of disaster, we are one family," local radio said. "We are
confident that under the leadership of the Party, families can be
reunited and we can leave this nightmare."
A paramilitary officer marching with a hundred troops towards Wenchuan
described a devastated landscape.
"I have seen many collapsed civilian houses and the rocks dropped from
mountains on the roadside are everywhere," Xinhua quoted People's Armed
Police officer Liu Zaiyuan as saying.
(Writing by Lindsay Beck and Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills and
John Chalmers)