China: Quake Death Toll Could Hit 50,000

Massive Military-Led Recovery Operation Inches Farther Into Isolated Regions

(CBS/AP)  Troops dug burial pits in this quake-shattered town and black smoke poured from crematorium chimneys elsewhere in central China as priorities began shifting Thursday from the hunt for survivors to dealing with the dead. Officials said the final toll could more than double to 50,000.

As the massive military-led recovery operation inched farther into regions cut off by Monday's quake, the government sought to enlist the public's help with an appeal for everything from hammers to cranes and, in a turnabout, began accepting foreign aid missions, the first from regional rival Japan.

Millions of survivors left homeless or too terrified to go indoors faced their fourth night under tarpaulins, tents or nothing at all as workers patched roads and cleared debris to reach more outlying towns in the disaster zone.

Health officials said there have been no outbreaks of disease so far, with workers rushing to inoculate survivors against disease, supply them with drinking water, and find ways to dispose of an overwhelming number of corpses.

"There are still bodies in the hills, and pits are being dug to bury them," said Zhao Xiaoli, a nurse in the ruined town of Hanwang. "There's no way to bring them down. It's too dangerous."

Relief teams are also focused on meeting the basic needs of the living - resorting to parachute drops in areas that are still too remote to reach, reports CBS News' Celia Hatton. But the search for food, water and safety has triggered mass migrations of people into Sichuan's cities, like one relief center in Mianyang.

One couple with a baby told Hatton that at their house they had no food, no water and so they walked for two days to get to a refugee center. After watching the interview, bystanders gave precious milk to the couple's granddaughter before the family waded into the crowd hoping to find shelter.

Troops in the town of Luoshui in a quake-ravaged area used a mechanical shovel to dig a pit on a hilltop. Two bodies wrapped in white sheets lay beside it. Down the hill sat four mounds of lime.

In a sign of nervousness, 50 troops lined the road outside Luoshui. Five farmers watched them dig the burial pit, after performing brief funerary rites. Local police detained an Associated Press reporter and photographer who took photos of the scene, holding them in a government compound for 3½ hours before releasing them without explanation.

Across the quake zone in Dujiangyan, troops in face masks collected corpses and loaded them onto a flatbed truck. Thick black smoke streamed from the twin chimneys of the town's crematorium.

Fears about damage to a major dam in the quake zone appeared to ease. The Zipingpu dam had reportedly suffered cracks from the disaster, but there was no repair work or extra security at the dam when it was reached Thursday by an AP photographer, indicating the threat to the structure had likely passed.

People trying to hike into Wenchuan walked on top of the dam as water spilled from an outlet, lowering levels in the reservoir and alleviating pressure on the dam.

Just behind the dam, soldiers set up a staging area preparing speed boats to lower into the reservoir and ferry soldiers in lifejackets, engineers and medical staff up river to Yingxiu, a town flattened by the quake.

The government says "the dam will hold, but then the longer-term question is what to do with it - to keep it or dismantle it," said Andrew Mertha of Washington University in St. Louis, author of a book on Chinese dams, "China's Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change,"

The emergency headquarters of the State Council, China's Cabinet, said the confirmed death toll had reached 19,509 - up more than 4,500 from the day before. The council said deaths could rise to 50,000, state media reported.

The provincial government said more than 12,300 remained buried and another 102,100 were injured in Sichuan, where the quake was centered.

Experts said hope was quickly fading for anyone still caught in the wreckage of homes, schools, offices and factories that collapsed in the magnitude-7.9 quake, the most powerful in three decades in quake-prone China.

"Generally speaking, anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days," said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Center. "After that, it's usually a miracle for anyone to survive."

Amazing survival stories did emerge, and were seized on by Chinese media whose blanket coverage has been dominated by images of carnage.

In Dujiangyan, a 22-year-old woman was pulled to safety after more than three days trapped under debris. Covered in dust and peering out through a small opening, she waved and was interviewed by state television as hard-hatted rescuers worked to free her.

"I was confident that you were coming to rescue me. I'm alive. I'm so happy," the unnamed woman said on CCTV.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the quake zone since Monday as the public face of a usually remote communist leadership, urged those helping the injured to keep up their efforts. Repeating a phrase that has become a government mantra this week, Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang said every effort would be made to find survivors.

"We will never give up hope," Gao told reporters in Beijing. "For every thread of hope, our efforts will increase a hundredfold. We will never give up."

With more than 130,000 soldiers and police mobilized in the relief effort, roads were cleared Thursday to two key areas that took the brunt of the quake, with workers making it to Wenchuan at the epicenter and also through to Beichuan county, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Communication cables were also reconnected to Wenchuan.

Power was restored to most of Sichuan for the first time since the quake, although Beichuan county remained without electricity, Xinhua said.

Much of the official publicity dwelled on efforts to reach the trapped but actual ground operations focused on delivering food and medical aid to survivors and disposing of the dead.

In Dujiangyan, on the road between the provincial capital of Chengdu and the epicenter, a dozen bodies lay on a sidewalk as police and militia pulverized rubble with cranes and back hoes. The bodies were later lifted onto a flatbed truck, joining some half-dozen corpses.

At the crematorium, some grieving relatives were rushed through funeral rites by harried workers. Scores of bodies lay on concrete in a waiting area - outnumbering the handful of chapels usually used in funerals.

Thick black smoke streamed from the crematorium's pair of chimneys as families cleaned and dressed the dead in funeral clothes, including fresh socks and sneakers for children.

Fireworks were set off every few minutes and families burned incense, candles and spirit money. Such traditions meant to send the dead peacefully into the afterlife were once banned by the communist authorities but have revived in recent years with free-market reforms and rising prosperity. Burial, which likewise the government once tried to stamp out, has become common in the countryside, although still difficult for people in crowded cities.

In an appeal posted on its Web site, the Ministry of Information Industry called on the Chinese to donate rescue equipment including hammers, shovels, demolition tools and rubber boats - 100 cranes were also needed, it said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also issued an emergency appeal for medical help, food, water and tents.

After initially refusing offers of foreign aid workers, China welcomed a Japanese rescue team. Made up of firefighters, police, coast guard and aid officials, the first half of the team arrived in Beijing on Thursday and would head to the disaster area Friday, Xinhua said.

Japan and China have been at odds for years over disputed borders, Japan's treatment of its wartime invasion of China, anti-Japanese protests in China, and general Japanese unease over Beijing's rapidly growing diplomatic, military and economic power. Leaders of the two countries met in Tokyo earlier this month to try to resolve their differences.

The Foreign Ministry said Russian, South Korean and Singaporean teams would join soon.

China had so far received international aid worth more than $100 million and materials worth more than $10 million, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing. But it still needed supplies of tents, clothes, communication equipment, machines for disaster relief, and medicines, he said.

"The Chinese authorities have done a fantastic job mobilizing troops, but troops are not everything. You need specialist teams with equipment otherwise you're not going to find them," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK, a search and rescue charity with two decades of experience handling international disasters.

[ydttg]

To the idiot who linked earthquake with global warming, you need a better education.

To the idiot below, I hope you could still say the same if it were your parents or siblings or spouse or children (any that applies to you) buried down there. You''re a truly horrible human being. I wonder if nature has its own way of adjusting human population, why doesn''t it do it selectively so you can be the one buried under the rubble.

[tbweb]

Ted Turner recently said the World has too many people. I wonder if Earth is capable of self-correcting and if these disasters are somehow related to a self-correcting process. The projected deaths in Myanmar which are now estimated at 80,000 and China projected to be around 50,000 are the only logical explanation. Maybe the Earth just knows what it can handle, maybe nature is smart in ways we don''t understand, just thinking out loud.

[bobkat258]

If you are a member of the human race then this is painful to hear and see. REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING ELSE!

[nonayabiness]

50,000 gone in nearly an instant. Truly devastating.

[pugster]

Actually, Blackwater was the first responders in Hurricane Katrina. And no, blackwater is not there to help people.

[lochlan-2009]

"China: Quake Death Toll Could Hit 50,000"

You sure it''s not 100,000, maybe half a million. There has been so much sensationalism on this story I''m practically to the point of ripping my radio out of the car and throwing it out the window if I have to hear one more sob story.

Don''t get me wrong, I am sorry for the lives lost (especially the children), but I am really tired of the three days straight of sob stories, "walking 20 miles through wind and snow with a broken leg and..."

[forthepeopl1]

that 50,000 that will not make it to america the land of the free. bush must be crying

[Syndicate]

Bush ordered the city of New Orleans evacuated. Perhaps if the inhabitants of new Orleans were Chinese they would have listened.

[stevenga777]

Parachuting soldiers in a disaster area to save lives...now thats taking care of your people. Why couldn''t Bush do that in New Orleans? Next time we have a disaster like New Orleans I would prefer to oursource the rescue efforts to the Chinese.

[rodeo555]

AL2008:

Although human activity probably does contribute to global warming, and although cyclones, hurricanes and tornados may be associated with that warming, please don''t associate earthquakes with it.

Earthquakes - a geological and tectonic event - have nothing whatever to do with climate change. Please get your science right.

[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 quakes and cyclones, 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 quakes, cyclones and disasters continue to worsen and the quicker we stop the warming the sooner we will see these quakes and storms cease. We need action now.

[b-easy63]

What is America sending to China for this tragedy? Since we are the largest debtors to China, it would not be a good idea for them to perceive us as slow in care or help when we constantly are demanding subsidizing, loans, etc from them. Before Bush, America always led the world in helping others. After Bush, we seem to lead the world in starting ***, bombing and invading and telling out victims we did it to help them. BIG DIFFERENCE.

[antidalai]

My 8-year-old son donated 100.50 chinese dollars that is all he has to the victims yesterday, I am proud of him

[antidalai]

My 8-year-son donated 100.50 chinese dollars to the victims yesterday, I am proud of him