China earthquake kills hundreds in Qinghai

[amoverlord]

bad news.............may the dead rest in peace n their relatives find strength n hope........

 

[lhuang]

RIP brothers.

Any donation site open?

 

[xuxu1457]

About 400 dead, 10,000 injured in 7.1-magnitude quake in China's Qinghai

English.news.cn 2010-04-14 16:29:27
YUSHU, Qinghai, April 14 (Xinhua) -- About 400 people have died and 10,000 others were injured after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, local authorities said.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered local authorities to go all out to save the disaster-stricken people.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has rushed to the quake-hit region.

Many people are still buried under the debris of collapsed houses in the Gyegu Town near the epicenter in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in southern Qinghai, said Huang Limin, deputy secretary-general of the prefecture government.

The strong quake and a string of aftershocks, with the biggest one being 6.3 magnitude, have toppled houses, temples, gas stations and electric poles, triggered landslides, damaged roads, cut power supplies and disrupted telecommunications. A reservoir was also cracked, where workers are trying to prevent the outflow of water.

Gyegu, also known as Jiegu, is the seat of the Yushu prefecture government. The town has a population of about 100,000, including permanent residents and migrant people.

About 700 soldiers are now struggling to clear away the rubble and rescue the buried people, a spokesman with the Qinghai Provincial Emergency Office said.

More than 5,000 additional rescuers, including soldiers and medical workers, have been dispatched to the quake-hit region, according to a news conference held by the Qinghai provincial government.

The China Earthquake Administration, the Red Cross Society of China, and authorities in the neighboring Gansu, Sichuan provinces and Tibet Autonomous Region, as well as Beijing, have also dispatched rescuers to Yushu.

Tents, cotton-padded clothes and quilts are being rushed to the region from various parts of the country.

"Our top priority is to save students. Schools are always places that have many people," said Kang Zifu, an army officer in the rescue operation in Gyegu.

The quake also killed five people and injured one in the Shiqu County, which neighbors Yushu, in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze in Sichuan Province, local authorities said.

Lying on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yushu has an altitude of above 4,000 meters.

The Qinghai Provincial Observatory forecast Wednesday that Yushu would see strong winds and sleet in the coming days, which would hamper rescue efforts.

Samdrup Gyatso, 17, who ran a shop in his two-story house in Gyegu, lost his relatives in the earthquake.

"There are 10 people in my family and only four of us escaped. One of my relatives died. All the others are buried under the rubble," he said.

Many local residents were seen Wednesday afternoon taking cars, mini-vans and tractors to flee the town.

Three tents have been set up in the government compound of the Yushu prefecture, which accommodated about 60 people.

More than 85 percent of the houses in Gyegu had collapsed, said Zhuohuaxia, a publicity official with the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu.

"The streets in Gyegu are thronged with panic, injured people, with many bleeding from the head," he said.

"Many students are buried under the debris due to building collapse at a vocational school," he said.

"A large crack appears in the wall of the Yushu Hotel, and part of a government office building also collapsed," he said.

"I can see injured people everywhere. The biggest problem now is that we lack tents, we lack medical equipment, medicine and medical workers," he said.

The epicenter is at the Rima Village in the Shanglaxiu Township, about 50 km west of Gyegu and about 800 km away from Xining, the Qinghai provincial capital.

"The epicenter is a pasturing area and sparsely-populated. I think the quake would not cause casualties as heavy as those in Jiegu," Zhuohuaxia said.

Zhu Liang, a driver at the Yushu prefecture government, said he saw half of the buildings in the Yushu Vocational School had collapsed.

"I do not know how many students have died," said Zhu, who is now in the rescue operation.

"Students just got up and were yet to go to class when the quake happened. I recovered several bodies from the debris and found they were fully dressed," he said.

"Buildings in our school were all toppled, and five pupils have died," said a teacher surnamed Chang at the Yushu Primary School, a boarding school with about 1,000 students.

"Morning sessions did not begin when the quake happened. Some pupils ran out of dorms alive, and those who had not escaped in time were buried," Chang said.

"The houses here are almost all made of wood and earthen walls, which will easily collapse when a quake happens," said Karsum Nyima, deputy director of the News Department of the Yushu TV Station.

Although Yushu is a sparsely-populated region, experts said the quake is very likely to cause "heavy" casualties.

"The strong quake has a shallow depth and the epicenter is close to the prefecture seat," said Sun Shihong, a research fellow with the China Earthquake Networks Center in Beijing.

"It is estimated there will be heavy casualties, as the quake occurred in the early morning and most of the local residents were yet to get up," he said.

"In addition, according to the building structure and damages, a large number of people will be injured," he added.

The quake led to a temporary cut of telecommunications and damaged roads to the airport. The epicenter is about 200 km away from the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

"The railway line does not go through Yushu, so it is unlikely to be affected by the quake," said Lin Zhigang, of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company.

The quake was strongly felt in the neighboring Qamdo Prefecture and other regions in Tibet.

"But no casualties or major damages have been reported so far. We are investigating the losses," said Zhu Quan, director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Seismological Bureau.

The bureau has dispatched an emergency team made up of 63 professional rescuers to Yushu, Zhu said.

"They left Qamdo in the morning and will arrive at Yushu in the afternoon," he said.

Another 17 rescuers have set off for Yushu from the Tibet regional capital of Lhasa, and they are expected to arrive at the region Thursday, he added.

The quake was also felt in parts of the neighboring Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze in Sichuan Province.

"In addition to five deaths, some houses were damaged or toppled, and some highways were disrupted," said Guo Jin, director of the Garze Bureau of Earthquake and Disaster Relief.

RESCUE

The China Earthquake Administration has also sent 60 rescuers and 30 medical workers to the quake-hit region.

The China Eastern Airlines has arranged two aircraft for transporting rescuers and relief supplies.

The Qinghai Provincial Department of Civil Affairs has allocated 5,000 tents to the region.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has allocated 5,000 tents, 50,000 cotton-padded clothes and 50,000 quilts to the region.

The Red Cross Society of China has dispatched a relief team to Yushu and allocated 100,000 yuan (14,706 U.S. dollars), 500 tents, 1,000 cotton-padded clothes and 1,000 quilts as relief supplies.

In addition, authorities in Beijing have donated 10 million yuan to Yushu and dispatched an 80-member medical team there. They also sent 10,000 tents, 20,000 beds and 100,000 quilts there.

Pupils of some primary schools were among the buried, but the number was unknown, said Shi Huajie, an army police officer in the rescue operation.

"We have to mainly rely on our hands to clear away the debris as we have no large excavating machines," he said. "We have no medical equipment, either."

Wu Yong, commander of the Yushu Military Area Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, said the death toll "may rise further as lots of houses collapsed."

"We are now putting up tents and transporting oxygen to prepare for treating the injured," he said.

"But roads leading to the airport have been damaged, hampering the rescue efforts," he said.

"In addition, frequent aftershocks and strong winds make the rescue operation more difficult," he added.

The quake struck the Yushu County in the Yushu prefecture at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.

At least 18 aftershocks have been reported so far, with the biggest being 6.3 magnitude about an hour and 36 minutes later.

"Aftershocks above 6 magnitude are still likely to happen in the coming several days," warned Liu Jie, of the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Earlier at 5:39 a.m. Wednesday, a 4.7-magnitude jolted the county with a depth of about 6 km, the center reported.

Yushu is a quake-prone region.

An 8.0-magnitude quake centered in Wenchuan County in Sichuan on May 12, 2008 left 87,000 people dead or missing.

In terms of the intensity and scope of destruction, the Wenchuan quake is believed to have surpassed the 7.8-magnitude quake in 1976 in Tangshan, northern Hebei Province, which claimed more than 240,000 lives.

 

[xuxu1457]

 

[Indian Su30 MKI]

A very sad day for China as well as Asia

 

[Speeder 2]

how many people in total live in those remote villages affected by the quake?

 

[Break the Silence]

Very sad news...may the soul of victims rest in peace...
It is very heart breaking thing to happen, when you dont have control or prediction regarding these natural disasters...

 

[Sino-PakFriendship]

Some Western Whites will mimic Sharon Stone to say this is Karma!

 

[Justin Joseph]

Some Western Whites will mimic Sharon Stone to say this is Karma!

RIP.

comments not required, plz forget troll at least in this thread.

 

[Mauryan]

A good read on Earthquakes Predictions:

In China, there’s a well-known case of successful earthquake prediction based on a variety of evidence, including animal behavior. It was winter (February), and one of the things they observed was snakes that typically hibernate underground coming to the surface only to freeze to death in the days leading up to the earthquake. One wonders what the snakes were sensing.”

Earthquake Prediction and Myths

RIP those souls..............

 

[FreekiN]

Oh my god. RIP to the victims. heart breaking indeed.

These earthquakes are happening every 3-4 days now...

Where is donations website?

 

[Al-zakir]

Very sad news to hear. My condolences with the people of China. May the deceased rest in peace.

 

[mehru]

Very tragic. RIP to the dead.

 

[pmukherjee]

Condolences to all Chinese. RIP to the dead.

 

[Frankenstein]

RIP to the Victims