Major earthquake hits China

[golfmom]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080512/NEWS/80512022/1001/NEWS

CHONGQING, China — Chinese state media says more than 7,600 people have died in Sichuan province alone from a massive earthquake.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that another 10,000 people were believed hurt in one of the province’s counties after the 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday.

Nearly 900 students were trapped after their school collapsed about 60 miles from the quake’s epicenter. Rescuers had recovered at least 50 bodies from the debris of the school building

The earthquake struck in the middle of the afternoon when classes and office towers were full.
.......

 

[philamena]

I saw news footage about the earthquake earlier today.
Certain areas of China have been obliterated. There isn't enough hospital space for the injured and make shift hospitals were set up in parking lots with the injured laying on the ground.
This is another terrible catastrophe.

 

[poco]

I saw news footage about the earthquake earlier today.
Certain areas of China have been obliterated. There isn't enough hospital space for the injured and make shift hospitals were set up in parking lots with the injured laying on the ground.
This is another terrible catastrophe.

Geez, no offense, but now the prices on everything we import from China will go up to - which is almost everything nonedible..........

 

[philamena]

Wow, I didn't think about that...but you're right.

 

[jubie]

This is just so sad. A Highschool full of kids. I sure hope they can get under some of that rubble and find survivors!!!

In what way do you think it will increase prices?



J.

 

[golfmom]

Poco, are you worried about the "price of tea in China"?

 

[JDB]

Please don't tell Rocky just another thing to add to planet X:crazy:

 

[Tom'sGirl]

I saw news footage about the earthquake earlier today.
Certain areas of China have been obliterated. There isn't enough hospital space for the injured and make shift hospitals were set up in parking lots with the injured laying on the ground.
This is another terrible catastrophe.

They just updated the death toll to over 10,000 it said on the news

 

[golfmom]

They just updated the death toll to over 10,000 it said on the news

This is just so heartbreaking. My mom was in China just two weeks ago ... I'm so glad she's home, safe and sound!

 

[Tom'sGirl]

This is just so heartbreaking. My mom was in China just two weeks ago ... I'm so glad she's home, safe and sound!

Oh my, glad that was two weeks ago

 

[pixies]

on NPR the reporters voice was shaking as she spoke about a middle school collapsing and the medics pulling the kids out and laying them on the ground so parents could walk by and indentify their kids.

I could never imagine such horror and grief as that....

I am not a big fan of China, in fact I distrust China but this is just heart wrenching.

 

[KrisNine]

In all of your prayers for the human lives there, please include my precious pandas in your prayers. The epicenter was practically a direct hit at Wolong Panda Reserve. There has been no word out of Wolong as of this evening.

 

[JBean]

No Hope’ for Children Buried in Earthquake
DUJIANGYAN, China — The children who were considered fortunate escaped with a broken bone or a severed limb. The others, hundreds of them, were carried out to be buried, and their remaining classmates lay crushed beneath the rubble of the schoolhouse.
“There’s no hope for them,” said Lu Zhiqing, 58, as she watched uniformed rescue workers trudge through mud and rain toward the mound of bricks and concrete that had once been a school. “There’s no way anyone’s still alive in there.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/asia/13scene.html?hp

 

[Paladin]

Please don't tell Rocky just another thing to add to planet X:crazy:

He spoke with God yesterday, and the earthquake is the price to pay for receiving this message.

 

[LadyLuck]

China is not one of my favorite countries, but this is so sad. Prayers for the county, and families. I just can not comprehend what they are going through.

 

[philamena]

http://kjct8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8316443
Death toll in China quake climbs above 12,000

Associated Press - May 13, 2008 12:33 PM ET
MIANYANG, China (AP) - Most of the people living in one Chinese city of 700,000 residents have been out of their homes since yesterday's magnitude 7.9 earthquake. Plastic sheeting is providing the only shelter from the rain, which is hampering relief efforts in the hardest hit areas.
Soldiers searching in one small town say there may be only 2,300 survivors out of a population of 9,000.

 

[golfmom]

He spoke with God yesterday, and the earthquake is the price to pay for receiving this message.

Or it could be retribution for his banning. :innocent:

 

[invictus]

18,000 feared buried and death toll now estimated at 12,000

At first I thought the comment "Geez, no offense, but now the prices on everything we import from China will go up to - which is almost everything nonedible.........." to be cold and insensitive but after further thought it really is how this directly affects us. That doesn't change the fact that this is about the loss of human life.

 

[SuziQ]

There is a new danger now:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/14/china.quake/index.html

(snip)
About 2,000 troops were sent to work on a dam near the epicenter of Monday's earthquake, state-run media reported.
The Zipingpu dam, upriver from Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, was in "great danger," the Xinhua news agency reported.
China.org said that the 7.9-magnitude earthquake had caused "severe cracks" in the dam.
The "plant and associated buildings have collapsed and some are partly sunk," it said of the hydropower station.
The Ministry of Water Resources said that an irrigation system and Dujiangyan City -- which has a population of about 630,000 -- "would be swamped," if major problems emerged at the dam, China.org said.

 

[invictus]

The devestation here is astronomical.