China hit by earthquake

ravi12 · 05-12-2008, 05:18 AM

Quote:

China Is Hit by 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Near Chengdu (Update3)

By Aaron Sheldrick and Eugene Tang

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- China was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake near the central city of Chengdu, the U.S. Geological Survey said, causing buildings to shake in Beijing more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away.

The quake struck 90 kilometers west-northwest of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers, the USGS said on its Web site. A magnitude 6 quake struck the area about 15 minutes later. Chengdu is the provincial capital of Sichuan and has a population of about 11 million people.

Walls were cracked in some buildings in Chengdu, state- owned Xinhua news agency reported, citing correspondents on the scene. There wasn't any major damage, the agency said. Troops were being sent to Wenchuan, a city of 111,800 people and one of the closest population centers to the quake, Xinhua said.

Phone calls from Beijing couldn't be connected to Chengdu and mobile phone networks were down in Beijing and Shanghai. China Telecom Corp. spokesman Jacky Yung couldn't immediately comment on damage when contacted on his mobile phone.

Officials at the U.S. embassy in Beijing couldn't reach the American consulate in Chengdu, spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said.

The quake shook buildings in Beijing for more than three minutes and traffic stopped. Office workers were seen scrambling to get out of China World Tower, one of Beijing's tallest building. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Shaking was felt as far as Bangkok and Hong Kong.

The quake sparked panic in cities and towns across Sichuan and other central provinces, Xinhua said. No damage was reported at the Three Gorges Dam in Sichuan province, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The earthquake struck about 350 kilometers west-northwest of Chongqing, a city of about 30 million in central China.

It was the world's strongest quake since a 7.8 magnitude temblor struck south of Fiji in the Pacific Ocean in December last year, according to the USGS Web site.

Ray · 05-12-2008, 05:52 AM

Very unfortunate!

There was a tornado in the US, Myanmar is reeling with the cyclone and now this!

My condolences for all those who have suffered and hope they all bounce back!

HKDan · 05-12-2008, 06:57 AM

The power of this earthquake really amazed me. I am working in the city of Hangzhou right now(near the coast and very far from the location of this earthquake). This afternoon I didn't feel anything, but several of my colleagues got calls from their wives who were at home in high rise apartments and they really felt shaking, some of them were quite frightened. My heart goes out to those affected by this quake and I hope that the damage will not prove too serious.

HKDan · 05-12-2008, 08:12 AM

China: 107 dead, 900 students buried in quake - CNN.com

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At least 107 people died in a major earthquake that rocked central China on Monday -- but the total does not include any of the nearly 900 students feared buried in a collapsed high school.

China's official news agency Xinhua did not say if the buried students were believed to still be alive following the 7.8 magnitude quake.

Xinhua did not detail where the 107 deaths occured, although it reported earlier that four students were killed and 110 hurt when a middle school building collapsed in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of the epicenter.

Another person was killed when a water tower fell in the city of Mianyang, the news agency reported.

A provincial government spokesman said they feared more dead and injured in collapsed houses in Dujiangyan City in Wenchuan County, Xinhua reported.

The news agency also quoted a driver for the seismological bureau saying he saw "rows of houses collapsed" in Dujiangyan.

Chinese President Hu Jintao immediately ordered an all-out effort to help victims of the earthquakes, Xinhua reported. It said Premier Wen Jiabao would go there to direct the rescue work. Video See workers in Chengdu hiding under their desks during the quake. »

Bonnie Thie, the country director the Peace Corps, was on a university campus in Chengdu about 60 miles from the epicenter, in the eastern part of China's Sichuan province, when the first quake hit.

"You could see the ground shaking," Thie told CNN.

The shaking "went on for what seemed like a very long time," she said.

"This is a very dangerous earthquake," said Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake has the potential to cause major damage because of its strength and proximity to major population centers, he said. In addition, the earthquake was relatively shallow, Presgrave said, and those kinds of quakes tend to do more damage near the epicenter than deeper ones.

An earthquake with 7.5 magnitude in the northern Chinese city of Tangshan killed 255,000 people in 1976 -- the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries and the second greatest in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Tangshan is roughly 995 miles (1,600 km) from Chengdu, the nearest major city to the epicenter of Monday's quake.

After the first quake struck Monday, the ground shook as far away as Beijing, which is 950 miles (1,528 km) from the epicenter.

They felt "a very quiet rolling sensation" that lasted for about a minute, according to CNN correspondent John Vause.

"Our building began to sway," he said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from Beijing high-rises immediately after the earthquake.

At least six more earthquakes -- measuring between 4.0 and 6.0 magnitudes -- happened nearby over the three hours after the initial quake at at 2:28 p.m. local time (0728 GMT, 0228 ET), the USGS reported.
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A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said no Olympic venues were affected by the earthquake. The massive Three Gorges Dam -- roughly 400 miles east of the epicenter -- was not damaged, a spokesman said.

The earthquake was also felt in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and as far away as Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Hong Kong-based Mandarin-language channel Phoenix TV.

Tarek Morgen · 05-12-2008, 09:11 AM

according to German news sources the death toll is reported to be 5000 and rising.

xunil · 05-12-2008, 09:34 AM

It was about 2:30PM. I was on bed. Suddenly, the bed start shaking. First, I thought someone was shaking my bed. I headed up and found nobody. Then i realize it's earthquake. I jumped out of bed, and walked out of room. It was like on a boat, the ground was moving.

HKDan · 05-12-2008, 09:53 AM

Xunil,

Where were you? Its incredible how people from really distant places were able to feel this quake. The news is starting to get painful to watch. It looks like this was a bad one.

xunil · 05-12-2008, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HKDan

Xunil,

Where were you? Its incredible how people from really distant places were able to feel this quake. The news is starting to get painful to watch. It looks like this was a bad one.

I'm in Xi'an. It's my first earthquake experience. Until now one injure case was reported here.

xunil · 05-12-2008, 10:48 AM

Until 22:00, 7651 death.

**Officer of Engineers** · 05-12-2008, 12:08 PM

900 school children buried in their school. My heart goes out to all.

citanon · 05-12-2008, 12:08 PM

Condolences to all the victims. Here's to hoping that rescue efforts, treatment of victims, and compensation of losses go as smoothly as possible.

**Parihaka** · 05-12-2008, 12:25 PM

7.8 is huge. With a high density population like China this must be awful, I hope all our members are ok.

Dreadnought · 05-12-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parihaka

7.8 is huge. With a high density population like China this must be awful, I hope all our members are ok.

Very surprised to hear a quake that large after the cyclones. I feel soory for all of those people lost or killed. Sheesh talk about a bad streak.

Neo · 05-12-2008, 12:57 PM

My condolences to the families of the deceased.

Quote:

Death toll in China earthquake up to nearly 9,000

CHONGQING, China - One of the worst earthquakes in decades struck central China on Monday, killing nearly 9,000 people, trapping about 900 students under the rubble of their school and causing a toxic chemical leak, state media reported.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated a hilly region of small cities and towns in Sichuan and nearby provinces. The official Xinhua News Agency said 8,533 people died in Sichuan alone and dozens of other deaths were reported in surrounding areas.

Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

State media said a chemical plant in Shifang city had cratered, burying hundreds of people and spilling more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia from the site.

The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand.

The quake posed a challenge to a government already grappling with discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Beijing Olympics this August.

It hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

The temblor struck hilly country leading up to the Tibetan highlands, toppling buildings in small cities and towns in the largely rural area. About 1,200 pandas — 80 percent of the surviving wild population in China — live in several mountainous areas of Sichuan.

The earthquake, China's deadliest since 1976, occurred in an area with numerous fault lines that have triggered destructive temblor before. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Diexi, Sichuan that hit on August 25, 1933 killed more than 9,300 people.

Xinhua said 50 bodies had been pulled from the debris of the school building in Juyuan town but did not say if the children were alive. Xinhua reported students also were buried under five other toppled schools in Deyang city.

Xinhua said its reporters saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story building in Juyuan "while others were crying out for help."

Two girls were quoted by Xinhua as saying they escaped because they had "run faster than others."

Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school. Other photos posted on the Internet and found on the Chinese search engine Baidu showed arms and a torso sticking out of the rubble of the school as dozens of people worked to free them, using their hands to move concrete slabs.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system. The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.

"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," he said.

The road to Wenchuan from Chendu was cut off by landslides, state media said, slowing the rescue efforts.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

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 an inspection at the venue when the quake occurred. 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

Skyscrapers swayed in Shanghai and in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

Death toll in China earthquake up to nearly 9,000 - Yahoo! News

luffaman · 05-12-2008, 16:54 PM

tears,
right now tolls rise up to 8533, i am quite sure that a bigger number is on the way.
red cross china website doesn't accept credit cards or paypal, so a fast, effective way to donate is throught JET LI's ONE FOUNDATION, for more inform, please check:
ENGLISH:
One Foundation
CHINESE:
One Foundation

be brave, china!

05-12-2008, 05:52 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ray Postmaster General *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-20-03 Posts: 26,144 Country:	Very unfortunate! There was a tornado in the US, Myanmar is reeling with the cyclone and now this! My condolences for all those who have suffered and hope they all bounce back! __________________ "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination." I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to. HAKUNA MATATA

05-12-2008, 09:11 AM	#5 (permalink)
Tarek Morgen *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 02-08-07 Location: Kassel Posts: 807 Country:	according to German news sources the death toll is reported to be 5000 and rising. __________________ uh I might be wrong

05-12-2008, 12:08 PM	#10 (permalink)
Officer of Engineers *Military Professional* Moderator Scotch taster Join Date: 08-06-03 Posts: 15,915 Country:	900 school children buried in their school. My heart goes out to all. __________________ Chimo

05-12-2008, 12:25 PM	#12 (permalink)
Parihaka Moderator Join Date: 11-10-04 Location: Te Ika a Maui Posts: 9,465 Country:	7.8 is huge. With a high density population like China this must be awful, I hope all our members are ok. __________________ In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

05-12-2008, 16:54 PM	#15 (permalink)
luffaman Regular Join Date: 03-15-07 Location: the US of A Posts: 129 Country:	tears, right now tolls rise up to 8533, i am quite sure that a bigger number is on the way. red cross china website doesn't accept credit cards or paypal, so a fast, effective way to donate is throught JET LI's ONE FOUNDATION, for more inform, please check: ENGLISH: One Foundation CHINESE: One Foundation be brave, china! __________________ CCP (chinese comedian party) founder

05-12-2008, 06:57 AM	#3 (permalink)
HKDan Contributor Join Date: 05-23-06 Location: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hangzhou, wherever the wife drags me Posts: 406 Country:	The power of this earthquake really amazed me. I am working in the city of Hangzhou right now(near the coast and very far from the location of this earthquake). This afternoon I didn't feel anything, but several of my colleagues got calls from their wives who were at home in high rise apartments and they really felt shaking, some of them were quite frightened. My heart goes out to those affected by this quake and I hope that the damage will not prove too serious.

05-12-2008, 08:12 AM	#4 (permalink)
HKDan Contributor Join Date: 05-23-06 Location: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hangzhou, wherever the wife drags me Posts: 406 Country:	China: 107 dead, 900 students buried in quake - CNN.com BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At least 107 people died in a major earthquake that rocked central China on Monday -- but the total does not include any of the nearly 900 students feared buried in a collapsed high school. China's official news agency Xinhua did not say if the buried students were believed to still be alive following the 7.8 magnitude quake. Xinhua did not detail where the 107 deaths occured, although it reported earlier that four students were killed and 110 hurt when a middle school building collapsed in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of the epicenter. Another person was killed when a water tower fell in the city of Mianyang, the news agency reported. A provincial government spokesman said they feared more dead and injured in collapsed houses in Dujiangyan City in Wenchuan County, Xinhua reported. The news agency also quoted a driver for the seismological bureau saying he saw "rows of houses collapsed" in Dujiangyan. Chinese President Hu Jintao immediately ordered an all-out effort to help victims of the earthquakes, Xinhua reported. It said Premier Wen Jiabao would go there to direct the rescue work. Video See workers in Chengdu hiding under their desks during the quake. » Bonnie Thie, the country director the Peace Corps, was on a university campus in Chengdu about 60 miles from the epicenter, in the eastern part of China's Sichuan province, when the first quake hit. "You could see the ground shaking," Thie told CNN. The shaking "went on for what seemed like a very long time," she said. "This is a very dangerous earthquake," said Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake has the potential to cause major damage because of its strength and proximity to major population centers, he said. In addition, the earthquake was relatively shallow, Presgrave said, and those kinds of quakes tend to do more damage near the epicenter than deeper ones. An earthquake with 7.5 magnitude in the northern Chinese city of Tangshan killed 255,000 people in 1976 -- the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries and the second greatest in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Tangshan is roughly 995 miles (1,600 km) from Chengdu, the nearest major city to the epicenter of Monday's quake. After the first quake struck Monday, the ground shook as far away as Beijing, which is 950 miles (1,528 km) from the epicenter. They felt "a very quiet rolling sensation" that lasted for about a minute, according to CNN correspondent John Vause. "Our building began to sway," he said. Thousands of people were evacuated from Beijing high-rises immediately after the earthquake. At least six more earthquakes -- measuring between 4.0 and 6.0 magnitudes -- happened nearby over the three hours after the initial quake at at 2:28 p.m. local time (0728 GMT, 0228 ET), the USGS reported. advertisement A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said no Olympic venues were affected by the earthquake. The massive Three Gorges Dam -- roughly 400 miles east of the epicenter -- was not damaged, a spokesman said. The earthquake was also felt in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and as far away as Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Hong Kong-based Mandarin-language channel Phoenix TV.

05-12-2008, 09:34 AM	#6 (permalink)
xunil Patron Join Date: 03-27-08 Posts: 244	It was about 2:30PM. I was on bed. Suddenly, the bed start shaking. First, I thought someone was shaking my bed. I headed up and found nobody. Then i realize it's earthquake. I jumped out of bed, and walked out of room. It was like on a boat, the ground was moving.

05-12-2008, 09:53 AM	#7 (permalink)
HKDan Contributor Join Date: 05-23-06 Location: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hangzhou, wherever the wife drags me Posts: 406 Country:	Xunil, Where were you? Its incredible how people from really distant places were able to feel this quake. The news is starting to get painful to watch. It looks like this was a bad one.

05-12-2008, 10:48 AM	#9 (permalink)
xunil Patron Join Date: 03-27-08 Posts: 244	Until 22:00, 7651 death.

05-12-2008, 12:08 PM	#11 (permalink)
citanon Patron Join Date: 11-13-07 Posts: 275	Condolences to all the victims. Here's to hoping that rescue efforts, treatment of victims, and compensation of losses go as smoothly as possible.

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