After I put down the phone, my heart never felt so heavy. I just called my parents in my hometown, Chengdu, a city with 12 million people, which is just 90 kilometers away from the center of the strong earthquake at a magnitude of 7.9. It has killed more than 10,000 people so far. The death toll is still rising hour by hour.
Fig. 1 Earthquake map by the United States Geological Survey
At around 2:30 PM Beijing time today (May 12), a terrible beast began to shake the city furiously for about two minutes. Since it was still school time, hundreds of children in some middle schools were suddenly buried over when the campus building totally collapsed during the strong shake. Thousands of survivors from their destroyed houses were bought to the open places near the hospitals to receive some simple treatments to prevent from further bleeding. They varied from old women in their 80s to Children who are only several years old. Hospitals themselves are no longer safe since more earthquakes could come at any time, thousands of patients were also persuaded to leave hospital buildings and stay in the open places around. Even new born babies were also taken out with intensive cares from nurses nearby. Not like people in California, people in West China have no experience of the earthquake in the past 30 years, let alone for this strong one. Millions of people dare not back to their home for sleeping at night. They simply slept on the street or the city squares with light around to drive away their fear and anxiousness. Government began to set up large tents as the temporary shelters, and offer food, water and blankets etc. for all those suddenly homeless people.
Fig.2 Rush wounded students to the hospital
Fig.3 New born infants being taken out
Chengdu is by no means the worst-hit place in this disaster. In a single county nearby, more than 7,000 people were reported being killed so far. The highways and railways to the cities near earthquake center were heavily blocked by huge rocks fallen from the landslides nearby. All communications, either landline or mobile, had been totally cut off. Nobody knows what had happened to the city named Wenchuan with 100,000 people which lies in the very center of the earthquake. Further news can be found in New York Times:
or Economist:
Report from Economist
Fig.4 wounded people receive the treatments in the street
After earthquake, many desperate parents are searching for their sons or daughters; Many children are crying for their missing parents; Thousands of people are still buried in the ruins of collapsed building while some are luckily being rescued by the arriving soldiers. Everywhere hospitals are full of the wounded, and medical cares are far less adequate to meet the need. It is now raining and cold in early May in Sichuan. Millions of people are still sleeping outside. And tents, blankets or sleep bags are all badly needed. Anybody who is willing to help can go to American Red Cross
or:
HongKong Red Cross
(Because China Red Cross is in Chinese)
Fig.5 A boy being rescued
Fig.6 A girl was pulled out of Collapsed campus buildling
Fig. 7 Thousands of people living outside after the earthquake
Fig. 7 Parents and grandparents are crying for their perished child
Fig. 8 The parents of a child killed in the school collapse. The child’s body is covered with cloth
Fig. 8 A student aiding a classmate still trapped in the ruins of a high school
Fig. 9 The rescuers are helping a trapped girl out of the ruins
Fig. 10 A injured girl is receiving treatment in the open hospital
Fig. 11 A nurse keeps on talking with a boy trapped in the ruin
Fig. 12 A wounded girl and her grieved grandma
Fig. 13 Survivors walking along a damaged road
Fig. 14 A doctor is encouraging a patient
God bless West China. God bless those people who are suffering from this terrible earthquake.
National Public Radio has a production team in Chengdu and is reporting new updates frequently.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu/
Thanks, Jon, I am reading the blogs now.
Hi Joseph, Glad to hear you were able to get through to your parents. Hope they weren’t hurt.
Here is an email excerpt from my friend in Chongqing, a high-school student.
” Maybe you will be surprised I send an email on weekdays.Maybe you have known that there was an immense earthquake in Sichuan.But today I was really scared,you know I have never experienced such a disaster. At about 2:48,I went to school to have a chemistry class.When I got there,sitting on my desk,I found my water bottle was swaying slightly.Then others also felt that,but we did not know why.A few seconds later,my desk,the lights suspended from the ceiling,and the whole building began to sway!The students who were on the high floor could hardly stand firmly.So we dashed outside,while others went out of the building in order.Till then,I had found that this was a earthquake! Now we have been in peace.This earthquake happened in the west of Sichuan.But to my surprise,Shanghai,Nanjing,even Beijing was influenced by the earthquake!That means,people live there felt the same as we did! I feel sorry I can not give you more information.You can see further reports on the website,that will be another big news in China. What a …dreadful day!But I think myself lucky.
Hope you are in good health,”
We’ve been hearing from friends in Chengdu. That city did reasonably well. However, as of last night news is not available from cities farther west.
To Corie,
Thanks for your concerns for my families. They are OK. They just need some time to recover from this shock and back to the normal life.
To Jon,
Thanks for your Email with the vivid description. I also know that the city is quite OK now even people are still too scared to stay inside the buildings.
Wikipedia has become a surprisingly good source for information about natural disasters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake
What’s the best place to send donations? Red Cross?
I think that HongKong Red Cross is a good choice because it is also in English.
http://www.redcross.org.hk/