China Quake Death Toll Rises To 10,000
Thousands Of Troops Pour In To Aid Trapped Survivors; Rain Hampers Rescue Effort
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Play CBS Video Video Massive Earthquake Rocks China The largest earthquake to hit China in 30 years was followed by more than 300 aftershocks causing massive death and destruction. Celia Hatton reports.
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Video Deadly Quake Strikes China A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rattled central China's Sichuan province, where state media is reporting that nearly 900 students may have been buried. Celia Hatton reports.
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Rescue workers pull out a young girl from under the rubble of a collapsed school in Juyuan, southwestern China's Sichuan province, Tuesday, May 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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People take care of patients outside a hospital after it was evacuated following an earthquake in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province Monday, May 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)
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In this photo distributed by the official Xinhua news agency, rescuers try to save wounded students at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan county of southwest China's Sichuan province, on Monday May 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Chen Xie)
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Chinese students help a fainted classmate evacuate to a playground for safety in Qionglai city, southwest China's Sichuan province, Monday May 12, 2008, after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck mountainous central China. (AP Photo)
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In this photo distributed by the official Xinhua news agency, rescuers search for students at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan county of southwest China's Sichuan province, on Monday May 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Chen Xie)
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Photo Essay Quake Shakes China Hits central China, killing nearly 9,000 people, trapping 900 students under rubble of school.
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Interactive Ground Shakers Learn about what triggers an earthquake and get details on some of the world's worst.
Much of the area has been closed to foreign media and travelers since then, compounding the difficulties of getting information. Roads north from Chengdu to the disaster area were sealed off early Tuesday to all but emergency convoys.
In Chengdu, the region's commercial center, the airport closed for seven hours, reopening only for emergency and a few outbound flights. A major railway line to the northeast was ruptured, stranding about 10,000 passengers, Xinhua said. Although most of the power had been restored by nightfall, phone and Internet service was spotty and some neighborhoods remained without power and water.
Nervous residents spent the night outside, some playing cards or heading to the suburbs. State media, citing the Sichuan seismology bureau, reported 313 aftershocks.
"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," said Ronen Medzini, an Israeli student in Chengdu, via text message.
When it hit shortly before 2:30 p.m., the quake rumbled for nearly three minutes, witnesses said, driving people into the streets in panic.
"It was really scary to be on the 26th floor in something like that," said Tom Weller, a 49-year-old American oil and gas consultant staying at the Holiday Inn. "You had to hold on to something like that or you'd fall over. It shook for so long and so violently, you wondered how long the building would be able to stand this."
While most buildings in the city held up, those in the countryside tumbled. On the outskirts of Chongqing, a school collapsed, killing at least five people. Residents said teachers kept the children inside, thinking it was safer.
The city of Mianyang ordered all able-bodied males under 50 to take water and tools and walk or drive to Beichuan, where most of the buildings had collapsed.
State TV broadcast tips for anyone trapped in the earthquake. "If you're buried, keep calm and conserve your energy. Seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue," CCTV said.
China's two stock exchanges suspended trading Tuesday in 66 companies based in the region in an effort to minimize potential disruptions from the disaster. In Tokyo, Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Toshiaki Hori said production had been suspended at the company's Chengdu factory.
Although initially measured at 7.8 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey later revised its assessment of the quake to 7.9. Its depth - about six miles below the surface, according to the USGS - gave the tremor such wide impact, geologists said.
The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, 930 miles to the north, causing evacuations of office towers. People ran screaming into the streets in other cities, where many residents said they had never felt an earthquake.
When word spread that the quake was centered in Sichuan, some people in Beijing fought to fly there despite cancelled flights to Sichuan's capital, CBS News' Celia Hatton reports.
In Beijing, where hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors are expected for the Olympics, stadiums, arenas and other venues for the games were undamaged.
Li Jiulin, a top engineer on the 91,000-seat National Stadium - known as the Bird's Nest and the jewel of the Olympics - was conducting a site inspection when the quake struck. He told reporters the building was designed to withstand a 8.0 quake.
"The Olympic venues were not affected by the earthquake," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee. "We considered earthquakes when building those venues."
Some 660 miles to the east in Anhui province, chandeliers swayed in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel. "We've never felt anything like this our whole lives," said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.
The massive Three Gorges dam, the world's largest about 350 miles to the east of the epicenter, was not affected, according to the information office of State Council Three Gorges Construction Committee. The area around the enormous dam remains increasingly precarious as rising waters in the reservoir have led to landslides.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 168 CommentsTwo things have become evident to me even though they don''t
make any sense at all.
The first one is that the Democratic Party Leadership
knows damm well that if Obama where to actually make
it past the Republicans and get in the White House, the results will be disastrous.
The second one is that the Democratic leadership
is throwing this election.
I know it''s hard to believe. I know it doesnt make any sense. But it''''s happening everyday right in front of us, and I can''t go on telling myself that it isn''t.
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave
Posted by Humanavance at 12:04 AM : May 13, 2008
+ report abuse
what are you ?? a martian??
Well thank goodness the pandas are ok,there''s plenty of China men but only a few of those lovable pandas!!
[Posted by yixin1 at 11:27 PM : May 12, 2008]
generalizations made from anonymous online message board comments is not likely to be a true reflection of the whole.
Posted by jeff92706
well, actually, these people you are referring to will only accept help from the mormons.
Posted by yixin1
there still is so much love and compassion in america. do not judge americans as whole on some complete loveless idiots. i have heard that the lds people have been trying to get over there. there is so much that the mormons, or any other non governmental aide ready to help out.
i promise, there are the handful of complete idiots that do not think when it comes to comments, well, they just do not think. these are the people that expect government hand outs while sitting on their fat lazy asssss thinking everyone owes them.
well, you make yourself who you are, and they have shown they are idiots.
Posted by yixin1
there still is so much love and compassion in america. do not judge americans as whole on some complete loveless idiots. i have heard that the lds people have been trying to get over there. there is so much that the mormons, or any other non governmental aide ready to help out.
i promise, there are the handful of complete idiots that do not think when it comes to comments, well, they just do not think. these are the people that expect government hand outs while sitting on their fat lazy asssss thinking everyone owes them.
well, you make yourself who you are, and they have shown they are idiots.
Posted by yixin1
there still is so much love and compassion in america. do not judge americans as whole on some complete loveless idiots. i have heard that the lds people have been trying to get over there. there is so much that the mormons, or any other non governmental aide ready to help out.
i promise, there are the handful of complete idiots that do not think when it comes to comments, well, they just do not think. these are the people that expect government hand outs while sitting on their fat lazy asssss thinking everyone owes them.
well, you make yourself who you are, and they have shown they are idiots.
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Posted by ccfsdca at 10:28 PM : May 12, 2008
Such heartless comment! I guess you are planning to kill yourself soon to relieve the burden of mother earth!
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See all 168 Comments