China Quake Death Toll Rises To 10,000

Thousands Of Troops Pour In To Aid Trapped Survivors; Rain Hampers Rescue Effort

(CBS/AP)  A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants Monday in central China, killing about 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the country's worst quake in three decades.

The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in midafternoon, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing and could be felt as far away as Vietnam.

As Tuesday dawned, rescuers were frantically searching for more survivors, but rain was compounding the difficulty. Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to the region, said rain was forecast for the next several days.

The government was pouring in troops to aid in the disaster recovery. Xinhua said 16,000 were in the area and 34,000 more were en route.

Snippets from state media and photos posted on the Internet underscored the immense scale of the devastation. In the town of Juyuan, south of the epicenter, a three-story high school collapsed, burying as many as 900 students and killing at least 50, the official Xinhua news agency said. Photos showed people using cranes, mechanical hoists and their hands to remove slabs of concrete and steel.

The news agency reported on Tuesday that another 1,000 students and teachers were buried and feared dead when a high school collapsed in Beichuan county. The building was reduced to a pile of rubble two yards high, it said.

Buried teenagers struggled to break free from the rubble in Juyuan, "while others were crying out for help," Xinhua said. Families waited in the rain near the wreckage as rescuers wrote the names of the dead on a blackboard, Xinhua said.

Parents of the dead students built makeshift religious altars at the site, resting the corpses on any available piece of plywood or cardboard, and burning paper money and incense in a traditional honor for their child in the afterlife, according to NPR's Melissa Block.

The earthquake hit one of the last homes of the giant panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve and panda breeding center, in Wenchuan county, which remained out of contact, Xinhua said. But the agency reported that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.

In Chengdu, it crashed telephone networks and hours later left parts of the city of 10 million in darkness.

"We can't get to sleep. We're afraid of the earthquake. We're afraid of all the shaking," said 52-year-old factory worker Huang Ju, who took her ailing, elderly mother out of the Jinjiang District People's Hospital. Outside, Huang sat in a wheelchair wrapped in blankets while her mother, who was ill, slept in a hospital bed next to her.

The overall death toll increased to about 10,000, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. It said nearly 10,000 people died in central China's Sichuan province alone and 300 others in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing.

Worst affected were four counties including the quake's epicenter in Wenchuan, 60 miles northwest of Chengdu. Landslides left roads impassable Tuesday, causing the government to order soldiers into the area on foot, state television said, and heavy rain prevented four military helicopters from landing.

Wenchuan's Communist Party secretary appealed for air drops of tents, food and medicine. "We also need medical workers to save the injured people here," Xinhua quoted Wang Bin as telling other officials who reached him by phone.

To the east, in Beichuan county, 80 percent of the buildings fell, and 10,000 people were injured, aside from 3,000 to 5,000 dead, Xinhua said. State media said two chemical plants in an industrial zone of the city of Shifang collapsed, spilling more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia. The news agency said about 600 people died in Shifang and up to 2,300 were buried by rubble.

Though slow to release information at first, the government and its state media ramped up quickly.

Wen, a geologist by training, held an early morning emergency meeting near Chengdu and ordered troops and police to clear the road north to Wenchuan.

"We must try our best to open up roads to the epicenter and rescue people trapped in disaster-hit areas," he said. Wen said the earthquake "was more serious" than expected.

Television footage showed large boulders and downed trees blocking the road to Wenchuan.

Disasters always pose a test for the communist government, whose mandate rests heavily on maintaining order, delivering economic growth, and providing relief in emergencies.

Pressure for a rapid response was particularly intense this year, with the government already grappling with public discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

"I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy," President Bush said in a statement.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said no aid requests had been made by China.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge sent his condolences to President Hu Jintao, adding: "The Olympic Movement is at your side, especially during these difficult moments. Our thoughts are with you."

The quake was the deadliest since one in 1976 in the city of Tangshan near Beijing that killed 240,000 - although some reports say as many as 655,000 perished - the most devastating in modern history. A 1933 quake near where Monday's struck killed at least 9,000, according to geologists.

[louielau1975]

Good Luck! China!

[lewiston14]

A 7.8 is not fun anywhere. Its always the regular people that suffer the most

[mweb14]

I think it bears noting in light of all the negative press that China has been getting recently, that China''s Premier, Wen Jiabao, is ALREADY here organizing emergency response efforts. Compare that to his American counterpart''s Katrina response times and then talk about Human Rights.

[aeasus]

My prayers for those and thier families.

[usbrit-2009]

I''m actually with James this time. The fact that rescues are underway so quickly is a feather in the Chinese cap. The problem is the corruption plagued construction industry in China that allows the shoddy building standards that leads to so much damage. Pray for the children.

[toolmangler-2009]

How could a country that cares so little about human rights be so quick to respond to a natural disaster to save it''''''''s people?
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 08:56 AM : May 12, 2008

How much do you care? Students are buried in rubble and all you care about is taking a lame bash at Bush

Posted by jamesm12341 at 09:05 AM : May 12, 2008







Please show me how you arrived at this interpretation of dragonwagon5''s comment.

[johnstossel]

Maybe this will close factories so that we can make things in this country again. God has answered our prayers!!!

[fibonacci_]

Freakvannies think that God hates communism probably.

[jetlizhan]

thousands killed in china and myanmar - i''m telling ya folks, these are the end of times just like the Bible says. ya better get your affairs in order. don''t be left behind.

[toolmangler-2009]

Freakvannies think that God hates communism probably.
Posted by fibonacci_ at 09:39 AM : May 12, 2008



Jesus advocated ''true'' communism. The only reasonn that it can''t work is that man is in charge of administering it. When a totally neutral leader heads it up then it will work.

[zorar-2009]

free Tibet

[acolton1]

Major Quake 7.8 just a few months before the Olympics start how fantastic. Maybe there will be a few big after shocks during the games just to spice up the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. It would be great to be watching some Olympic event on TV and then have a big after shock hit and knock out the TV transmissions and everybody panic. Maybe Mother Nature will put a twist on the 2008 games this summer with a little bit of earth shakin this summer.

[techaroo]

LORD, have mercy on those who are enduring these recent disasters, and also have mercy on those of us who politicize and are callous.

[quetzalcrist]

This is horrible human tragedy,
Eartquackes dont descriminate. humans do.

[al2008-2009]

I%u2019m appalled at the administration%u2019s lack of response to the global warming earthquakes, hurricanes, and cyclones as well. We have no comprehensive strategy in place whatsoever, let alone a detailed plan of action to mitigate the effects of these earthquakes, and mother earth continues to suffer while the administration refuses to go forward and do what%u2019s right for mother earth.
.
How long must we sit idly by while our mother continues to suffer from the warming taking place at a feverish pace? How long must our mother suffer before we have proper c02 taxes put into place? How long must the destruction of mother earth take place before we finally put responsible plans into action? How long must we wait until we beef up our corn ethanol production? At least Obama wants to cut c02 pollution by 80%; he is definitely our best hope.
.
We the people call upon our leaders to implement a comprehensive antiglobal warming strategy at once and work in coordination with state and federal officials; these earthquakes and storms continue to worsen and the quicker we stop the warming the sooner we will see these quakes and storms cease. We need action now.

[questionnews]

We the people call upon our leaders to implement a comprehensive antiglobal warming strategy at once and work in coordination with state and federal officials; these earthquakes and storms continue to worsen and the quicker we stop the warming the sooner we will see these quakes and storms cease. We need action now.


Posted by AL2008 at 10:22 AM : May 12, 2008

Global warming causes earthquakes????????
I didn''t know mental patients had access to the internet.

[joecoolswat]

AL2008....Isn''t if funny that almost no hurricane''s reached the U.S. mainland last year?

[joecoolswat]

fibonacci_.....FloydZep

[joecoolswat]

There are a number of articles from NASA, which indicate a strong possiblity of a long cooling period.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080304113132.aspx

[iamauto]

Last time, in 1988, the chinese dragon year.
Big disaster happened in China.

Chinese guys seem not have good luck.

[bogusbones]

basic problem is over population period. people are living where people didn''t live before and mother nature really doesn''t look where any natural disaster will occur. wait until a big one hits california and 20,000 die. then the end of the world contingent will start to howl. all of our natural problems can be traced to the fact there are too many people in too small of a place.

[ubrew12]

bogusbones said: "basic problem is over population period. "

Fact: You could take everyone on the planet, give every family of 4 a typical suburban home, and the entire planets population would fit in the State of Texas.

Please put them in the State of Texas...

[usbrit-2009]

Global warming causes earthquakes????????
I didn''''t know mental patients had access to the internet.

Posted by Questionnews

Global warming, if it exists, absolutely can not have any effect on earthquakes. Having lived in So Cal for 20 + years, however, I certainly heard a lot of rumors about "earthquake weather" (unseasonably hot and dry soon after a wet spell). Considered baloney by CalTech experts.

AL2008....Isn''''t if funny that almost no hurricane''''s reached the U.S. mainland last year?

Posted by JoeCoolSwat

True, but we got lucky - they all went south into central America - still close to the same number as predicted though.

[obamawhama]

its reminder that we are not the real masters in this planet..

live life to its fullest as soon as you wake up..

[ubrew12]

bogusbones said: "basic problem is over population period. "

It doesn''t help that 70% of the worlds surface is covered in ocean.
Whoops, make that 75%.
Whoops... 80%
(*** Global Warming...)

[s1ckd09]

Posted by AL2008 at 10:22 AM : May 12, 2008

Don''t you DARE include ME in your "we the people" lies. There can be NO response to a "global warming earthquake, hurricane, or cyclone, because global warming doesn''t cause those things. "Mother earth" isn''t suffering, she is doing what she does because it is NATURAL. There is no feverish pace to warming that hasn''t occured at the same intervals it always has, and at the same pace. It just so happens that humans are around during this one. CO2 taxes are stupid, because a tax has never fixed anything, even if there WAS something than can, or should, be fixed, which there is not. Increasing the corn ethanol production is what is causing the food shortages, because you can''t shift agricultural crops to energy crops and not affect the food supply. Read the science, not the headlines, and you''ll see that GW is a trumped up fear with no basis in fact, just inaccurate models that haven''t gotten anything right yet. The scariest thing is your support for Obama because he "WANTS" to reduce CO2 by 80%. Of course, we could eliminate man made CO2 completely, and there would STILL be no significant change in global warming, but you''ll "feel" better while the world suffers through more food shortages and energy crises. Idiot.

[killtheliars]

to all of those who believe in the whole global warming theory, even if it is true, which I don''t believe it is, I will not support any so called solution that takes more money out of my pocket. This whole talk of a carbon tax is B.S. As a hard working American my taxes are already used to feed the poor, subsidize companies and fight wars to gain resources and protect so called allies. In other words my tax dollars are invested in causes where I personally get no return on my investment. This would be another of those causes.

[barbaraf4]

I guess Bush will want to send another zillion dollars to China to get everything back in shape for the Olympics.

How would that work? Would we borrow from China to send aid to China?

[barbaraf4]

"basic problem is over population period."
posted by bogusbones

"Just who are you to determine who has babies and who doesn''''t???? That''s the Almighty''''s Job! Not yours." Posted by cbsjerks2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I agree with bogusbones. As a taxpayer, I am getting very, very tired of supporting children created by parents who cannot afford to do so. If you can afford to clothe, feed, educate, and shelter a child, then by all means do it. If your resources are already stretched then do not add to the load.

[ubrew12]

barbaraf4 said: "As a taxpayer, I am getting very, very tired of supporting children created by parents who cannot afford to do so. "

People who study overpopulation have found that where women can be given work opportunities and some form of Social Security so help support them in old age, they''re less likely to ''push out'' 10 kids in the hopes that one of their grandkids will be able to support them in old age. This was first shown in Italy in the 1960s. A guy recently won the Nobel Peace Prize (or was it for economics) for a micro-lending program in India that only lends to women. Again the same idea, empower womens business instincts and they''ll use their productivity for business rather than put it into children. But it requires a gov''t that can convince them that Social Security will be there when they get old. In many poor countries, women have no opportunities and no Social Security. So, they either get married and have 10 kids or they end up begging,, or worse.

[joecoolswat]

s1ckd09...Excellent, Excellent point...Well put

[byeneocons]

Not sure how any of this overpopulation stuff relates to an earthquake that kills thousands, but...

How ironic that Mother Theresa spent most of her life visiting overpopulated regions with starving babies, and preaching against birth control.

[honestabe8]

Liberals are so gullible. Unreal.


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Posted by cbsjerks2008 at 10:53 AM : May 12, 200

Conservatives are gullible, too. Just consider the influence of the Jeebus Preachers on them.

[ubrew12]

s1ckd09 said: "The scariest thing is your support for Obama because he WANTS to reduce CO2 by 80%....there would STILL be no significant change in global warming,"

Actually, a major global push to reduce CO2 emissions would seek a modest reduction from 385 ppm to 350 ppm, below which scientists believe we can avoid many of the most damaging aspects of GW. There are too many unknowns (such as methane production from melting Arctic permafrost) to be comfortable going above 350 ppm. For most of the last 300,000 years, CO2 levels have been around 250ppm. We''re up 50% from that, and CO2 is a major greenhouse gas. Neither of the two halves of that last sentence is in any way controversial. The burden of proof is now on you to explain HOW we could reduce CO2 to zero and have NO effect on our climate. It just flies in the face of even casual knowledge of the subject.

[ontheleft]

"and there would STILL be no significant change in global warming, but you''''''''ll "feel" better while the world suffers through more food shortages and energy crises. Idiot."

For the "Global Warming" people:

Plants need CO2 to survive. Isn''''t it logical that less CO2 will produce a food shortage? Reduce CO2 by 80% with a CO2 tax? Lord, I have to make CO2 for the plants in my aquarium to survive."

Posted by easeltine at 12:24 PM


Gee, you''re a real scientist, aren''t you? Did you get your degree from Limbaugh University? I''ll trust your opinion instead of the thousands of PhDs out there who have been studying global warming for years.

[tbweb]

Sad random events like this that kill so many so quickly make waking up to see a new day seem like pure luck at times.

[actornaught]

s1ckd09...Excellent, Excellent point...Well put
Posted by JoeCoolSwat at 12:06 PM : May 12, 2008

Well put, if you don''t know what you''re talking about, and have hemorrhoids that you%u2019re compelled to share, otherwise called %u201Ctalking out your asss%u201D.

There IS a mechanism that can cause this kind of upheaval as a result of the melting ice caps. I don%u2019t CARE if you think it%u2019s impossible, since you rush fans have even less credibility than rush%u2026

[zertrat]

Wow, what a strange mix of topics for an earthquake. As for over-population, of course you all realize we have a tried and true solution. Right? Affluence. Affluent societies drop their birth rate down to stable population maintenance. Always. So the solution is to provide affluence. The ultimate effect of globalization will be to have families around the world well off with good health care and then they will only have a couple kids. And then affluent communities can build safer buildings. This is not rocket science, folks. But it''s a case where reality will never be realized -- just watch the responses to this post and you''ll know why.

[obamawhama]

Conservatives are gullible, too. Just consider the influence of the Jeebus Preachers on them.


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Posted by honestabe8 at 12:33 PM : May 12, 2008
+ report abuse


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and what does a liberal worship?? pamela anderson and the cast of jackass.. SCAREY!

[dorlockt]

and what does a liberal worship?? pamela anderson and the cast of jackass.. SCAREY!

Posted by obamawhama at 01:12 PM : May 12, 2008

The Village People and Jimmy Carter....even scarier!

[vietvet1973]

At least we don''t worship BOOOOSH!

[dorlockt]

Yeah, I heard Bush got miffed because his daughter changed her last name, so he went and caused the earthquake.

[enzoc45]

Bush''s fault?? NAH!!! His Excellency and Co. have been in denial all these years!!!

[obamawhama]

At least we don''''t worship BOOOOSH!


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Posted by VietVet1973 at 01:19 PM : May 12, 2008
+ report abuse

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they amount of rants you guys give Bush..you guys pretty much eat, sleep and sh*t Bush..who is worhip who here..

[obamawhama]

Liberals expect Bush to do everthing for them..and at the same token hates and desdain him..

what is the definition below ..clueless moron?

[honestabe8]

liberals worship pamela anderson? i guess i don''t get it because i am not a liberal, nor a conservative. by the way, there are many sexier women in hollyweird than pam anderson (spiritual daughter of loni anderson)

[obamawhama]

liberals worship pamela anderson? i guess i don''''t get it because i am not a liberal, nor a conservative. by the way, there are many sexier women in hollyweird than pam anderson (spiritual daughter of loni anderson)



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Posted by honestabe8 at 01:26 PM : May 12, 2008
+ report abuse

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if your not a liberal then you wont get it..liberal vatican (hollywood) sells them these idols to worship..SO THEY CAN GIVE THEM thier donations...

LIBERALISM is a religion..

[actornaught]

Posted by obamawhama

looks like singinrick/rickmeissejr has split off again...

[enzoc45]

somebody here has been listening a lil bit too much to modern day messiah!! i.e. SAVAGE!!! ROTFL!!!

[obamawhama]

Posted by obamawhama

looks like singinrick/rickmeissejr has split off again...


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Posted by actornaught at 01:35 PM : May 12, 2008
+ report abuse


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"its like a finger pointing towards the moon, do not focus on the finger or you will miss all of that heavenly glory" BUDDHA..

why you say that?? does it scare you?