This is a real tragedy, folks, and it is sad coming on China's glorious Olympic moment.
Four full posts for you:
"Troops hurry to reinforce cracked dam"
"by Audra Ang, Associated Press | May 15, 2008
HANWANG, China - Soldiers rushed to shore up a dam cracked by this week's powerful earthquake, and rescuers came by helicopter and ship yesterday into the isolated epicenter but still were forced to dig for survivors with their bare hands.
Nearly 26,000 people remained buried in collapsed buildings from Monday's magnitude 7.9 earthquake, and the death toll of almost 15,000 was expected to climb as relief operations spread into the mountains of Sichuan Province. The quake triggered landslides that blocked roads to the hardest-hit areas.
Even as the rescue effort seemed to gather momentum, speeded by clearing weather after two days of rain, caring for tens of thousands of people made homeless across the disaster zone has stretched thin the government's resources.
Homeless victims begged for aid on roadsides, and people settled in for a third night in a growing sprawl of refugee camps littered with garbage. In Hanwang, a town in one of the hardest-hit counties, survivors stood hoping for handouts from cars, jostling with one another to reach to one vehicle where a passenger passed bottled water out the window.
"I'm numb," said Zhao Xiaoli, a 25-year-old nurse working at a makeshift triage center in the driveway of a tire factory. "The first day, hundreds of kids died when a school collapsed. The rest who came in had serious injuries. There was so little we could do for them."
Damage to the two-year-old Zipingpu Dam threatened downstream communities still digging out from the quake. Some 2,000 soldiers were sent to the dam, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Four-inch cracks scarred the top of the dam, and landslides had poured down the surrounding hills, the business news magazine Caijing said on its website in a report from the scene.
Although the government pronounced the dam safe late Tuesday after an inspection, Caijing said its waters were being emptied to relieve pressure. The Ministry of Water Resources issued a notice to check reservoirs nationwide, and the economic planning agency said nearly 400 dams, most of them small, were damaged by the quake.
This thing is a MAJOR DISASTER!!!!!
Hundreds of rivers snake through the mountainous Tibetan plateau before descending into the fertile Sichuan basin, where they provide critical irrigation.
The activist group International Rivers Network was involved in a campaign in 2001 and 2002 to protest funding for the Zipingpu Dam because of its proximity to a fault line, said Aviva Imhoff, the group's campaigns director.
Imhoff said the group obtained transcripts of a 2000 internal government meeting in which seismologists warned officials of the dangers of constructing the dam and the potential for it to be damaged in an earthquake, Imhoff said.
The massive Three Gorges dam, the world's largest, is about 350 miles east of the epicenter. The information office of the State Council Three Gorges Construction Committee said earlier this week that there was no damage to the dam.
The official death toll rose yesterday to 14,866, and in Sichuan Province 25,788 people were buried and 1,405 were missing, said the provincial vice governor, Li Chengyun, according to Xinhua.
The numbers are staggering!
An already massive military operation gathered speed, with nearly 100,000 soldiers and police mobilized. After two days of rain that prevented relief flights, People's Liberation Army helicopters flew 90 sorties to the epicenter in the county of Wenchuan and other areas to drop food, medicine, and tents and to ferry out 156 injured people, Xinhua reported.
The scale of the devastation is raising questions about the quality of China's recent construction boom. Some builders cut corners, especially in outlying areas largely populated by the very young and the very old.
With help slow in arriving, some fled Yingxiu on foot, carrying injured family members in wheelbarrows.
One woman "carried a dead infant wrapped in white clothes as if the baby was alive," the agency said, citing a reporter who hiked to the area.
That's TRAUMA! Good Lord!!!!
Ships from a temporary dock built at a reservoir sailed to Yingxiu, but blocked roads meant heavy equipment could not be brought in. Most rescuers were using their hands, Xinhua reported.
Can you imagine trying to dig through rubble, readers?!
The death toll from the quake was expected to rise when rescuers reach other towns in Wenchuan that are still cut off.
"The Communist Party Central Committee has not forgotten this place," Premier Wen Jiabao said after flying by helicopter to Wenchuan.
President Hu Jintao presided at an emergency meeting of the party's powerful Politburo, urging the military, police, and others to redouble rescue and relief efforts.
A 34-year-old woman who was eight months' pregnant was rescued after spending 50 hours under debris in the Dujiangyan area.
But the rescuers called off the search for four others still trapped in the collapsed building, leaving only dogs to sniff for signs of life.""Scenes of tragedy as rescues dwindle and hope dries up"
"by Craig Simons, Cox News Service | May 15, 2008
JUYUAN, China - Digging by hand, soldiers and rescue workers combed through the wreckage of a middle school yesterday in this small Chinese town.
When they found bodies, they carried them one by one on makeshift stretchers into a muddy school field, where families identified the lost.
It was a mournful scene that will be repeated over coming days and weeks. Officials believe the giant mound of twisted metal and concrete shards holds the remains of several hundred missing children from Monday's powerful earthquake.
Li Zhihua, a 74-year-old retiree, said her grandson had been among the 900 students buried in the wreckage and the family had gathered to help the boy's parents.
"He was everything for them," she said, wiping away a tear. "It is very hard."
I'm getting to that point myself! Sigh!!!
For many of the grieving families, the loss of their children was particularly tragic because China's population-control policies restrict most couples to only one child.
Yes, I know about Asia's Abortion Crisis.
That's what makes this even more difficult to bear!
Yang Mouyipang, a 48-year-old farmer whose niece remained missing, said he had lost hope that she remained alive.
"We are just waiting to hear something," he said as families crowded around another body and tried to identify whose child she was.
Hope has died in Juyuan and in hundreds of towns and villages throughout western China that more survivors will be found. Yesterday, China's state-run media reported that nearly 15,000 people had died and tens of thousands more were buried or missing.
The grieving, searching and disbelief in Juyuan, a town of roughly 20,000 people, were common to many communities.
"We are shell-shocked," said Zhang Yuhua, a 57-year-old cook at the middle school who had been resting in an adjacent building when the earthquake hit. "All I can think of is the students who are gone."
Sixteen-hundred students attended the Juyuan Middle School and more than 900 of them were trapped when its largest building collapsed on Monday. By yesterday evening, only three children had been found alive, Zhang said, though one of the children later died in a nearby hospital.
Zhou Jianpin, a doctor from a local hospital, has spent two days at the site of the collapsed middle school, sleeping occasionally for a few hours.
He sat with a surgical mask dangling limply around his neck. "We won't leave until the last child is found," he said.
Zhang said that she was resting in a two-story apartment building behind the school when the earthquake hit at 2:28 p.m. Her most vivid and haunting memory of that day is a student, maybe 15 years old, whose legs were trapped under a fallen concrete slab.
"She was calling for me to help her, but I couldn't lift the stone," Zhang said, her eyes welling with tears behind thick glasses. "I tried to call 911, but the phones weren't working."
By the time the police arrived some 40 minutes later, the girl had died.
Yesterday, Zhang and other residents held vigil at the school wreckage, burning candles in tribute to children who had perished."I think I will light one in the window tonight.
None of the neighbors will know what it means, but I will!
This next report would be a good article if it wasn't dripping with Western superiority and hypocrisy.
Also see: Chinese Media Better than AmeriKa's
"Unshackled media report with rare candor"
"by Tini Tran, Associated Press | May 15, 2008
BEIJING - Bodies buried under mounds of rubble, bloodied survivors pulled from debris, weeping family members begging for information - the stark images are blanketing Chinese newspapers and television broadcasts.
The country's media are mounting an aggressive effort to cover the worst earthquake in decades, making a major departure from China's past tendency to conceal crises.
Scenes of destruction dominated the airwaves as state China Central Television switched to 24-hour coverage after the 7.9-magnitude quake hit Monday in Sichuan province.
Journalists dispatched across the stricken area fed a stream of fresh reports on rescue operations.
The official English-language China Daily devoted its front page to pictures of orange-suited rescue workers pulling out survivors and stories displayed against a black background in a sign of mourning. Other newspapers devoted half to three-quarters of their pages to quake coverage.
Officials have not fully unshackled the often tightly controlled media. Reports are emphasizing the government's rapid, full-scale response over grieving and sometimes angry survivors. And the fact that the earthquake was a natural - rather than manmade - disaster might have played a role in journalists being set loose.
And that is different from AmeriKan journalism how?
Where are the reports on the WARS and OCCUPATIONS, the ILLEGAL SPYING and the TORTURE?
Still, the nonstop, candid coverage is remarkable given China's usual response to disasters.
"The old traditions in reporting bad news were to cover up and to block, but it's very different now," said Shao Peiren, a mass media professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. "It shows the Chinese government is more confident than ever. It has realized that by sharing the news candidly, it can win the support of the public and the understanding of its people."
Which is the exact reason the AmeriKan MSM can't do that!
If American's ever really knew what went on in their name and WHOM THEY WERE SERVING, they would jail these war criminal controllers themselves!!!!
And I'm not talking one day reports that fade into oblivion, either!
I'm talking about the DAILY AGENDA PUSH!!!!
Three decades ago, Chinese leaders played down a devastating earthquake that battered the city of Tangshan and refused international aid, concealing a death toll of at least 240,000.
The U.S. refused aid after Katrina. Just wanted you to know that.
More recently, China's foot-dragging in reporting the SARS epidemic in 2004 led to international criticism, as did its crackdown two months ago on protesters in Tibet.
Yeah, let's take a minute to bash China during this tragedy, huh?
Seems to me the American government isn't much different.
We got cops beating people in the streets and a government that couldn't give a shit about our health, so......
The relative openness in reporting on the quake provides a sharp contrast to coverage of the anti-government riots in Lhasa, said Shi Anbin, professor of media studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Largely peaceful protests took place in Tibet's capital as early as March 10, but there was no coverage whatsoever by Chinese media, Shi said.
U.S. ANTIWAR PROTESTERS, assholes!!!!!!
Case FUCKING CLOSED, dammit!!!!
Foreign journalists were barred from Tibet and western China, but they have been given free rein in covering the quake's aftermath.
Our reporters are better here in AmeriKa -- they SELF-CENSOR!!!!
"The government and the media have learned a lesson from the Tibet incident," Shi said. "Chinese media have been much more proactive in the earthquake coverage, instead of being forced to react as they were during the Tibet incident."
Often hesitant to report negative news, state media have taken the lead in providing figures of the dead and missing in Sichuan and they broadcast footage of toppled buildings and blocked roads within the first few hours.
The official Xinhua News Agency and CCTV have prominently played up the mammoth rescue effort.
The AmeriKan MSM did the same thing with Katrina -- until it turned into a fiasco in front of their eyes.
Then they were forced to report the truth -- for a while, until they left!
The Gulf Coast is still in shambles, readers, but how often does the MSM tell you that three years later?
They also have given extensive coverage to Premier Wen Jiabao as he comforted orphans and rallied soldiers with a megaphone in hand after flying in within hours to lead the relief operation.
Might as well have been Bush three years ago!
But reporters for regional newspapers have filed pieces describing scenes of destruction from an eyewitness viewpoint, said David Bandurski, a researcher at the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong.
"Overall, we have seen moderately open coverage of the earthquake, not just from Xinhua and CCTV, but from the commercial media," he said. "It seems there is a tolerance for reporting from the ground and there's an interest in giving reporters leeway in reporting on the story."
China's state media were apparently given a green light to fully report on the extent of the disaster, said Xiao Qiang, a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
"This time, the fact that the government from the top, starting with [Premier] Wen Jiabao, responded to the situation, really made a big difference," he said. "The agenda is being led by the media, which is different than many cases before."I'm not so sure about that; it's like a PARTNERSHIP.
A COLLABORATIVE and ENABLING ROLE!!!!
They PUSH the AGENDA!! I don't know if they LEAD it.
Update: "China death toll could hit 50,000"
Oh, God! And it will probably keep going higher!
"China warned the death toll from this week's earthquake could soar to 50,000, while the government issued a public appeal Thursday for rescue equipment as it struggled to cope with the disaster.
I'm wondering if even the greatest government in the world could respond to this mess.
This is horrifying!
More than 72 hours after the quake rattled central China, rescuers appeared to shift from poring through downed buildings for survivors to the grim duty of searching for bodies -- with 10 million directly affected by Monday's temblor.
In Luoshui town -- on the road to an industrial zone in Shifang city where two chemical plants collapsed, burying hundreds of people -- troops used a mechanical shovel to dig a pit on a hilltop to bury the dead.
Police and militia in Dujiangyan pulverized rubble with cranes and backhoes while crews used shovels to pick around larger pieces of debris. On one sidestreet, about a dozen bodies were laid on a sidewalk, while incense sticks placed in a pile of sand sent smoke into the air as a tribute and to dull the stench of death.
Maybe I'll light some of those smelly things up, too!
The bodies were later lifted onto a flatbed truck, joining some half-dozen corpses. Ambulances sped past, sirens wailing, filled with survivors. Workers asked those left homeless to sign up for temporary housing, although it was unclear where they would live.
Not all hope of finding survivors was lost. After more than three days trapped under debris, a 22-year-old woman was pulled to safety in Dujiangyan. Covered in dust and peering out through a small opening, she was shown waving on state television shortly before being rescued.
"I was confident that you were coming to rescue me. I'm alive. I'm so happy," the unnamed woman said on CCTV.
One earthquake expert said the time for rescues was growing short.
"Generally speaking, anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days," said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Center. "After that, it's usually a miracle for anyone to survive."
The confirmed death toll reached 19,509 on Thursday, up from the nearly 15,000 confirmed dead the day before, according to the Earthquake and Disaster Relief Headquarters of the State Council, the country's Cabinet. The council said deaths could rise to some 50,000, state TV reported.
The government issued an appeal to the Chinese public calling for donations of rescue equipment including hammers, shovels, demolition tools and rubber boats. The plea on the Ministry of Information Industry's Web Site said, for example, that 100 cranes were needed.
And this is a government that CARES, readers!
"China’s leaders often respond assertively to natural disasters, fearing a strong popular reaction if they bungle rescue efforts"
More than 130,000 soldiers and police joined the relief operation, Xinhua said.
"This is only a beginning of this battle, and a long way lies ahead of us," Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang told reporters in Beijing.
"We will never give up hope," he said. "For every thread of hope, our efforts will increase 100-fold. We will never give up."
Premier Wen Jiabao visited Qingchuan in northern Sichuan province, site of a collapsed school that buried dozens of children, to encourage doctors and nurses aiding the injured.
"The party and the government are grateful to you. The people need you," he said in footage shown on CCTV. "They see you as a relative. Every act and word of yours represents the government."
After days of refusing foreign relief workers, China accepted an offer from Japan to send a rescue team, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in an announcement posted on the ministry Web site.
Taiwan's Red Cross said China also agreed to accept a 20-person emergency relief team from the island. Taiwan is also sending a cargo plane to Chengdu with tents and medical supplies. The Air Macau plane will make a brief stop in Macau.
Taiwan and China, which split during civil war in 1949, have banned regular direct links and other formal contacts as political disputes persist.
Amazing how people can come together after tragedy.
So why do we lose this feeling in everyday life, readers?
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also issued an emergency appeal for medical help, food, water and tents.
Gu Qinghui, the federation's disaster management director for East Asia who visited Beichuan county near the epicenter, said more than 4 million homes were shattered across the quake area.
HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!
"The whole county has been destroyed. Basically there is no Beichuan county anymore," Gu said in Beijing, adding the death toll was sure to rise.
Oh, MY GOD!!!! A WHOLE COUNTY DESTROYED!!!
Forty-four counties and districts in Sichuan were severely hit, with about half of the 20 million people living there directly affected, Xinhua said.
On Thursday, electricity supplies were restored to most parts of Sichuan for the first time since the quake, though Beichuan county near the epicenter remained blacked out, Xinhua said.
That's quicker than the U.S. government's response to Katrina!
Roads were cleared to two key areas that bore the brunt of the quake's force, with workers making it to the border of Wenchuan county at the epicenter and also through to Beichuan county, Xinhua reported.
Dujiangyan city was clogged with buses and trucks decked out with banners from companies saying they were offering aid to disaster victims. One tour bus was stuffed full of water bottles, cartons of biscuits and instant noodles.
Public donations so far have totaled $125 million in both cash and goods.
NBA star Yao Ming, China's most famous athlete, was planning to donate $285,000 to the relief effort, agent Erik Zhang said.
"My thoughts are with everyone back in my home country of China during this very dark and emotional time," Yao said in a statement from Houston, where he is recovering from a broken left foot with hopes of competing in the Beijing Olympics this August.
I'm not even from there and my thoughts are with them.
The world's should be!
As the rescue effort gathered momentum, the depth of the problem of tens of thousands homeless stretched government resources.
North of Chengdu in Deyang, the largest town near the devastated areas of Hanwang and Mianyang, thousands of people have streamed into the city hospital since Monday, mostly with head or bone injuries.
Patients heavily wrapped in bandages and with cuts and bruises were huddled in canvas tents in the hospital's parking lot.
"Our doctors have worked continuously since Monday and people keep coming in. We have to keep strengthening our measures to keep up," said Luo Mingxuan, the Communist Party secretary of the hospital.
There were piles of donated clothing for survivors at the hospital and stands for them to make free telephone calls. Handwritten notes with names of the injured were posted on a board in front of the hospital's emergency section, where ambulances arrived every few minutes.
Also Thursday, a group of 33 American, British and French tourists were airlifted from Wolong, site of the world's most famous panda preserve, to the provincial capital of Chengdu, Xinhua reported. All were in good health, Xinhua said."
