Apparently at least part of the soldiers marching on foot were greatly slowed down because the road condition were becoming too dangerous. The PLA air force is arriving and if they cannot land their planes, they are going to parachute. Right now still about 60k population at the epic center are out of communication. It would be really great if the US 10th Mountain Brigade could help with air lifting personnel and machinery, but unfortunately it is very probable that too much politics would be involved and too much time would be wasted.
first hand pictures taken by a local resident on his cellphone http://img13.tianya.cn/photo/2008/5/13/7946212_10103430.jpg http://img13.tianya.cn/photo/2008/5/13/7946211_10103430.jpg http://img13.tianya.cn/photo/2008/5/13/7946209_10103430.jpg
I looked at international red cross but I doubt that will actually make it to china because they probably have already decided their commitment. I am hoping some fund will open for the orphans or families without homes. Can people put spoilers on the pictures? I don;t want to see that.
looks like **** got way worse. that picture above is just sick. i don't know how these parents are going to get through. 1 child policy. it's not going to be easy for them. damn, i wish i can do something.
I don't know what building codes are like in the PRC but what little I know from talking to Chinese architects is that they aren't that good. Hopefully this will spur an improvement in building codes. The one good news about this is it looks like a major city like Chengdu suffered relatively little damage which shows that construction is pretty good in China.
people hire cheap labor to build brick houses. those don't stand too well. a lot school buildings are really old too. i guess it doesn't really matter how kind of building when the fundation is completely ripped apart. these parts don't get earthquakes that frequent, so most people have no idea what to do.
You have to consider that a lot of the buildings where built before regulation and unfortunately this includes many schools. Add that with the fact that many people in rural areas build their houses with stone and bricks which will snap in earthquakes. Thats why in some places you have as much as 80-90% of buildings destroyed. What I am concerned about is the training of the rescuers. From the clips I have seem a majority of the preliminary rescue work is been done by regular PLA, and they don't seem to be trained or have the necessary equipment to under take the work needed quickly and safely, since many of the buildings are still unstable. But hopefully more rescuers with proper rescue equipments have moved in (it seems they have or in the process of reaching the area). China also have the advantage of large amount of manpower on her side, so hopefully they may reach those who may still be trapped in time.
Sorry - I must bump.... the death count in the Sichuan Province alone now exceeds 12,000. that number is expected to increase dramatically in the near future.
My understanding listening to BBC yesterday was that the building codes were made sufficient in 1974. The rural homes which aren't built to code are an exception, but other than that, everything built after '74 should have a reasonable amount of structural integrity. And China has said that they don't require assistance from foreign organizations, so whoever wanted the 10th Mountain Division to assist, that won't be happening.
some more updates... WenChuan City's YingXiu village has 2,300 survivors (source: http://news.sohu.com/20080513/n256833354.shtml via CCTV) According to the disaster relief commander of the Aba region (basically, where the epic center region)... a team of about 100 pioneer rescuers has arrived in YingXiu village about 8 am EST (8 pm local time). This is the village closest to the epic center. the roads leading into YingXiu has all been destroyed and it could only be reached by foot. Yingxiu is an industrial heavy village with about 9,000 population. Currently, 2,300 of them have survived, with more than 1,000 seriously injured or sick. Currently no rescue team has arrived (I take it to mean the 100 or so arrived was not able to bring in much tools/medications etc) and medications are in serious shortage. (the region has been covered with heavy rain all day yesterday with constant after shocks). One elementary school was completely demolished. We can still hear our children crying for help. but we lack tools. Once the rescue team arrives, rescue will start. (let's hope they arrive really, really fast...) The Region government has made contact with another village that's also hard hit. No one has been able to reach that village yet, but a couple of technicians from the village managed to get out and called the regional government. the details are still unknown. All we know at the moment is it is a large village of 20,000 population; all infra-structures and electricities are swiped out. The survivors are desperately waiting for help. They need food, water, medication. They are asking for paradrops if possible. PLA foot soldiers are going through the mountain to try to reach there. The Wenchuan city downtown is a bit better than the above two villages. the survivors has moved to temporary shelters to wait for further help. Both Wenchuan city and Maoxian city have about 70%-80% of the houses collapsed. Finally, THE MOST DANGEROUS PART. A water dam in the upstream is showing signs of possible collapse. Another several water dams in the region is also considered in danger. If/Once that happens, it will be a huge peril for the larger dams downstream to handle. (the officer used "most dangerous", "danger", "extremely dangerous" in one sentence to describe the situation) and as a side note: the three george dam currently is not affected. the government is keeping an eye on it. There are a number of reliefing funds has been setup. but I'm not quite sure about there credibility atm. If anyone wants to make a donation and make sure it reaches the destination, I suggest them to try the chinese red cross first. If I find any other funds that's credible, I'll try posting the info as well.
