More than 50,000 people are dead, missing or buried under rubble after China's devastating earthquake, officials said yesterday as the full horror of the disaster began to emerge.
Rescue teams who punched into the quake’s stricken epicenter reported whole towns all but wiped off the map, spurring frantic efforts to bring emergency relief to the survivors.
Planes and helicopters air-dropped supplies, 100 troops parachuted into a county that had been cut off and rescuers in cities and towns across Sichuan Province fought to pull the living and the dead from the debris.
PHOTO: AFP
But the overwhelming message that came back from Sichuan Province was that only now was a picture slowly beginning to form of the epic scale of Monday’s 7.9-magnitude quake.
State media quoted Sichuan Vice Governor Li Chengyun (李成雲) as saying that based on “incomplete” figures, 14,463 people were confirmed dead in the province as of mid-afternoon yesterday.
Nearly 26,000 were buried in rubble and nearly 15,000 missing, he said.
But far beyond the numbers is the human tragedy behind China’s worst quake in a generation as rescue teams claw through twisted metal and concrete.
They were looking for people like He Xinghao, 15, whose lifeless body was eventually pulled from the debris of a school close to the epicenter.
Like many other Chinese of his age, strict population policies had made him an only child, and he was showered with affection by his family.
“He was such a good and well-behaved boy. He always did his homework,” said his aunt, Ge Mi, as fresh tears flowed from her reddened eyes.
It was a scene repeated across Sichuan — a province often better known to foreigners for its endangered giant pandas.
The destruction around the epicenter in remote Wenchuan County is massive, with whole mountainsides sheared off, highways ripped apart and building after building leveled.
Cries for help were heard from a flattened school in Yingxiu, where people tried to dig out survivors with their bare hands, state media said.
“The losses have been severe,” Wang Yi, who heads an armed police unit sent into the epicenter zone, was quoted as saying by the Sichuan Online news site. “Some towns basically have no houses left. They have all been razed to the ground.”
At least 7,700 people died in Yingxiu alone, Xinhua quoted a local official as saying, with only 2,300 surviving.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said 100,000 military personnel and police had been mobilized.
“Time is life,” he told rescuers.
The air drop started with planes and helicopters flying dozens of sorties, dropping tonnes of food and relief aid into the worst-hit zone, most of it cut off from the outside world by landslides and road closures.
As well as Yingxiu, CCTV television said air drops were also made in nearby Mianyang, Mianzhu and Pengzhou, while helicopters flew to Wenchuan with food, drinks, tents, communications equipment and other supplies.
The rescue effort has been badly disrupted since Monday by heavy rain, and the Meteorological Authority forecast more later in the week, raising the risk of fresh landslides.
World powers including the US, the EU and the UN have offered money and expertise, and Pope Benedict XVI called for prayers to be said. However China rebuffed offers to deploy foreign search and rescue experts, saying conditions were “not yet ripe.”
A Japanese foreign ministry official in charge of emergency aid said Tokyo offered rescue teams with sniffer dogs, but China had made no request.
Australian and South Korean expertise was also politely declined, although China did accept US$1 million in aid from Seoul.
“We were told that China cannot receive rescuers now due to poor condition of transportation systems,” a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Also See: Thousands of troops mobilized to help
Also See: Premier pledges help for quake victims
Also See: Parents face terrible wait for news
Also See: China says thanks, but no thanks, to Aussie rescue team
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique