UPDATE: Big aftershock causes more misery in China
Pastor Dale Morgan
UPDATE: Big aftershocks causes more misery in China*
By Chris Buckley
Reuters
Sunday, May 25, 2008; 7:03 AM
BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - A big aftershock rattled southwest China on
Sunday killing at least one person and injuring 400 others, state media
reported, nearly a fortnight after a big quake killed tens of thousands
in the same area.
More than 70,000 houses toppled during Sunday's tremor in Sichuan
province, state television reported. The 5.8 magnitude aftershock was
epicentered 40 km (25 miles) west-northwest of Guangyuan, the U.S.
Geological Service said.
At the same time hundreds of troops carrying explosives were trekking
through the area, attempting to reach a "quake lake" that threatened a
secondary disaster.
Concerned by a steep rise in the water level of a giant lake at
Tangjiashan, authorities want to blast a hole in the barrier before it
bursts and causes a flashflood. Thousands have been evacuated below the
lake as a precaution.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who believes the overall death toll from main quake
could exceed 80,000, has said the main concerns are now secondary
disasters like flooding and landslides, epidemics and providing shelter
for the millions of displaced.
State television earlier reported that an 80-year-old partially
paralyzed man was the longest known survivor to date. He was pulled
alive from the rubble on Friday, 266 hours after the 7.9 magnitude quake
hit.
The man was rescued in Mianzhu city, where he had been trapped under a
collapsed pillar of his house. He had survived after being fed by his
wife, the television report said.
PRECAUTIONARY STEP
The biggest concern among the dozens of quake lakes is one at
Tangjiashan which rose 1.93 meters on Saturday to 723 meters, Xinhua said.
"The relief work for Tangjiashan quake lake is now at critical stage,"
Vice Minister of Water Resource E Jingpin told a news conference in
Beijing. "The daunting difficulty in treating a quake lake is its
unpredictability -- its formation and when it could burst."
But a military expert near the wrecked town of Beichuan said the lake
did not pose an immediate threat.
"This is a precautionary step in case there is rain over the coming
days. The dam is far from overflowing yet, but we need to release water
in case the predicted rains come," said the PLA officer surnamed Liu.
Heavy rain and high winds were forecast in the province later on Sunday.
State media reported that fog had prevented the airlift of personnel and
equipment to the lake, and that more than 1,500 soldiers had been sent
there by foot.
Each soldier was carrying 10 kg of explosives, Xinhua state news agency
said.
The lake is just 3.2 km upstream from Beichuan, a town so badly hit that
it will be rebuilt in a new location and the ruins of collapsed
buildings left as a quake memorial.
Water Resources official Jingpin said 20,000 people had been evacuated
from areas threatened by 19 quake lakes.
Troops said on Sunday that any controlled release of water would not
present any danger for locals, but nonetheless farmers said they were
worried.
"At night-time you can hear the rumbling from the landslides around here
and sometimes the earth shakes," said Yang Daifu, 70, a farmer from
Nongwan village, which was nearly completely wiped out in the earthquake.
"We see the water is rising as well, so we still feel threatened here,"
said Yang, who now lives in one of the tens of thousands of state-issued
blue tents a few kilometers from his old home.
Soldiers, relief workers and survivors are already pushing on with
cleaning ruins and agricultural work, although mountainous terrain means
some places are still cut off after highways buckled, bridges collapsed
and landslides blocked roads.
($1=6.941 Yuan)
(Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby and Chen Aizhu in Beijing; Writing
by Jeremy Laurence; Editingby Bill Tarrant)