China buries quake dead as new aftershock hits
Pastor Dale Morgan
*China buries quake dead as new aftershock hits*
16 May 2008 09:59:37 GMT
Source: Reuters
By John Ruwitch
BEICHUAN, China, May 16 (Reuters) - China struggled to bury its dead and
help tens of thousands of injured and homeless on Friday when a powerful
aftershock brought new havoc four days after an earthquake thought to
have killed more than 50,000.
President Hu Jintao flew to the battered province of Sichuan and Premier
Wen Jiabao said the quake damage could exceed the devastating 1976
tremor in the northeastern city of Tangshan that killed up to 300,000
people.
Wen called on officials to ensure social stability as frustration and
exhaustion grew among survivors, many of whom lost everything and were
living in tents or in the open air.
China put the death toll at 21,500 on Friday but has said it expects it
to exceed 50,000.
Thousands of men, women and children were heading by foot for Mianyang,
a city near the epicentre, saying they were abandoning their ruined
villages for good.
Anger has also focused on the state of school buildings, many of which
crumpled in the quake, burying thousands of children and prompting the
Housing Ministry to order an investigation.
"If only there is the slightest hope, we will spare no effort. If only
there is one survivor in the debris, we will never give up," Wen said
over the debris of a collapsed school where hundreds were buried.
Thousands of residents from Beichuan, one of the areas worst hit by
Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake, streamed down the road away from the town,
carrying babies, bags and suitcases as they left in search of shelter.
A body lay covered on a makeshift stretcher by the side of the road,
abandoned by someone unable to carry it further. Rocks the size of cars
lay on the surface, evidence of landslides triggered by the quake.
The town was a scene of devastation, with virtually every building
either demolished or damaged beyond habitation.
To the south, in the village of Houzhuang, residents said they were
coping on their own, aid and troops yet to reach them.
"We ate some corn, but now we are suffering from diarrhoea after
drinking water from the ditch for two days," a resident surnamed Liu said.
"Now we've been trying to get things out of the debris to use, like
clothes, but we're very frightened that there will be another
earthquake, so we have to be very careful," he said.
BUCKLED ROADS, LANDSLIDES
The aftershock, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, hit Lixian, to the
west of the epicentre in Wenchuan, cutting off roads and newly repaired
telecommunications.
"A number of vehicles were buried in landslides. The casualties were not
known," Xinhua news agency said.
China has mobilised 130,000 army and paramilitary troops to the disaster
area, but with buckled and blocked roads, supplies and rescuers have
struggled to reach the worst-hit areas.
Neighbouring areas have also suffered, with more than 50,000 made
homeless in one county of Gansu province to the north, Xinhua said.
But there were still small victories.
Rescuers saved a child from the debris of a school in Beichuan 80 hours
after the quake struck. They said they could hear weak calls for help
from amid the rubble, Xinhua said.
Three others in Beichuan were rescued on Friday, two in the remains of
an office building and one in a collapsed hospital.
And 483 children and teachers escaped unscathed from a wrecked school in
Beichuan.
Many raised questions about school construction.
In Dujiangyan, a school collapse buried 900 students. In Wufu, nearly
every building in the village withstood the quake but for a primary
school, whose collapse killed about 300.
"Our child wasn't killed by the earthquake. She and the others were
killed by a derelict building. The officials knew it was unsafe," said
Bi Kaiwei, whose daughter, 13, was killed.
Two girls held hands in the ruins of their school promising not to give
up hope. "When rescuers found them, one in a coma and the other dead,
their hands were still clenched together," Xinhua said.
Housing Minister Jiang Weixin said the schools weren't designed to
withstand such a powerful eathquake, but added corruption was a possible
cause.
"At this stage we cannot rule out the possibility that there has been
shoddy work and inferior materials," Jiang told a news conference in
Beijing.
DAM THREAT
There were also concerns about epidemics if the dead were not soon
buried or cremated.
"We are in urgent need of body bags," Bai Licheng, a Communist Party
official in Sichuan's Yingxiu town, told Xinhua.
Bodies were lined up along the riverbank in the town, where more than
3,000 soldiers were searching for survivors.
The Ministry of Health issued a notice ordering bodies to be cleaned
where they were found and buried as soon as possible, far from water
sources and downwind from populated areas.
Hundreds of damaged dams have also raised fears of collapse or flooding
that could inundate towns and cities that are already struggling to
recover from the quake.
China has asked the United States for satellite images to help locate
victims and identify damaged infrastructure.
In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, reservoirs have been damaged,
some dams have cracked or are leaking water, and officials have warned
the full extent of the hazard was as yet unclear. (Additional reporting
by Emma Graham-Harrison in Yingxiu, Jason Li in Houzhuang; Writing by
Nick Macfie; Editing by David Fogarty)