The earthquake that shook half of Asia
I'm sure if you have been reading the news these days, you would have known, besides the cyclone in Myanmar, another natural tragedy has occurred in another part of the world. Yes the Sichuan Earthquake on 12th May 2008, at 2.28pm. (8.0 on the Richter scale, 10km below ground level - equivalent to 280 atomic bombs). With an earthquake occuring just 10km below ground level, it's considered a shallow one, hence the huge shock and vast area:
It overtook the Kobe Earthquake in 1995 and Taiwan 921 Earthquake in 1999 as probably the world's worst earthquake (on land, not beating 2004's 9.2 earthquake in the sea, causing Tsunami).
The Japanese earthquake experts estimated that the effects of Sichuan Earthquake is 30 times that of Kobe's, with an epicentre, at Wenchuan Province, 24 times that of Taiwan 921's. If I didn't hear it wrongly, it's about 3 times of Taiwan.
Breaking news of the Sichuan's earthquake by NBC:
Tremors were reported in most parts of China, except Xinjiang, Jilin and Heilongjiang. Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Vietnam , Bangladesh, Mongolia, Taiwan, Nepal, India, Pakistan and even Russia reported tremors as well.
If you want to see how violent the earthquake was, take a look at CNN's report:
Video taken out of Chengdu, how violent the earthquake was - by ABC News:
Video clip of how other provinces, including Shanghai, experienced the tremors. Interviewing a Boston Consulting Group employee as well - CNN:
Around 7000 schools collapsed in the Sichuan province, killing mostly children as the earthquake happened during school hours. CNN estimated that half of Sichuan's next generation has been wiped out by this natural disaster. It doesn't help that Sichuan is the biggest province in China, and the most densely populated. And it sure doesn't help that majority of the families have only one child, in line with China's one child policy. On the other hand, many adults were killed too as nearly 80 percent of the homes in Wenchuan has collapsed, and half of the office buildings and malls as well. While there were many parents who lost their children, there were many children who lost their parents as well.
News by NBC on the second night where more bodies of children are discovered:
Up till today (18th May 2008),
Death toll: 37,890
[update on 20th May 2008: Death toll at 40,075)
Injuried: 190,000
[update on 20th May 2008: 240,000 injuried)
Missing: Around 200,000
Homes destroyed: 18 million
No. of buildings that collapsed: 5 million
Number of aftershocks since Monday: Over 4200
Number of aftershocks that were more than 5 in scale: More than half of the aftershocks.
Size of People Liberation Army for rescue teams: 130,000
Number of Police involved: 12,000
YingXiu Town: 3/4 of the population wiped out.
Wenchuan Town: 300 out of the 6000-people populated town survived.
Countries granted to offer help: Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Russia and Taiwan.
Figures are figures. They tell you how serious things are, they give you a vague outline of what's happening.
But they don't tell you..
How terrible the epicentre looks:
How sad it is to know that hours before all these happened, the children were still having classes...:
With those blackboards still hanging up there...
How the road to affected areas are filled with difficulties:
How the buildings not only collapsed, but have shattered into pieces:
How the parents still insist on holding on to their child's hand, even when they were already dead:
How heart-breaking it is for the parents to know their child is dead, after pinning hope outside the rubble of the collapsed school for days:
How traumatising it is to see this:
How so many young children die in a collapsed kindergarten...:
How the soldiers could only find school bags but not their owners..:
How noble it is for this teacher to save 4 students by sacrificing his (He hugs them, and he took the blow when the school collapsed, hence the students survived):
How heart-breaking it is to see the husband, strapping the body of his wife to himself so he could bring her to a safer place - to give her a good burial:
How the troops who parachutes down to the epicentre had to write their last words before carrying out the mission of saving the people at the epicentre. Because they don't really know where they will be landing. (The epicentre, which satellite shots showed that 8 towns were buried, roads are ruined and bridges destroyed):
How the soldiers could only catch a short nap every other day at the side of the road because every seconds counts in the rescue missions:
How they have to use primitive methods to save because machines could cause more damage:
How arduous the journey was to bring survivors to safety...:
How the police cried when too many people were dying before them due to lack of medical supplies. Doctors and nurses were rummaging through the rubble to find medical supplies. Survivors get pulled out, but the medical team can only watch them bleed to death...:
How sad it is to see the People's Liberation Army (PLA) cry because they felt so helpless with the race against time:
How touching it is to see the soldiers and people help each other:
How sincere Prime Minister of China, Wen Jia Bao is:
I call this a true leader.
How much the Chinese are willing to help each other, that even the beggar on the street of Beijing donated his earnings for the day:
"The people who are affected by the earthquake need this money more than I do." was what he said.
How strong the fighting spirit is amongst the Chinese:
This girl cried out for help for 4 days, before being rescued. It was a miracle especially since the Golden-72 hours was already over.
How devoted are the surviving children towards education and learning..:
And how beautiful this picture is:
The baby was found bundled in a towel, with her mother bent over her, in a kneeling down position. Her mother died to save her. And in the bundle of towel, was a handphone that contained a short message that the mother had keyed before she died.
"Baby if you ever make it out alive, always remember Mummy loves you..."
Aftershocks has hindered several rescue missions. Heavy downpours, coupled with extreme hot weathers accelerates the rate of decomposition, raising fears of contaminated water sources and spread of diseases.
The next cause for concern is flood. Fallen rocks from mountains have cut rivers, forming fast-flowing independent lakes on its own. These lakes will quickly overflow and flood affected areas. As of 18th May 2008, 18 of such lakes have been confirmed, each the size of 40 football fields.
As of 17th May 2008, 1,180,000 people and soldiers have been ordered to evacuate from Wenchuan due to risk of one of the overflowing lakes:
God knows how many more of these evacuations will take place. And not to mention the 400 over leaking dams all over the affected area after the shake.
China has truly impressed the westerners and the world with the speed in allowing absolute free press coverage and the flow of aids. The Premier was on the plane to the disaster centre 90 minutes later to co-ordinate the rescue and relief effort; local, provincial and national and military authorities immediately ordered an all-out rescuing effort, no arguments, no buck passing. Airports and buildings were evacuated in little over 30 minutes and police and emergency workers swung into action at about the same time. Soldiers poured into the disaster sites by planes, trucks and, where the roads were damaged, by walking for hours. Victims helped themselves and others where they could; everything was orderly; no chaos, no looting, no crimes and no unreasonable demands, knowing at times of crisis, action, understanding and unity is the best for all. They were even more efficient than US during the Hurricane Katrina period.
6 days after the disaster, and even with the aid of foreign rescue teams, only 1/20 of the affected area has been covered. It's just too big. Frigging 3 Taiwans! I don't really wish to imagine how high the final death toll will be.
Freak, I can't stop crying when I watched this video:
苏芮:亲爱的小孩
小小的小孩今天有没有哭
是否朋友都已经离去留下了带不走的孤独
漂亮的小孩今天有没有哭
是否弄脏了美丽的衣服却找不到别人倾诉
聪明的小孩今天有没有哭
是否遗失了心爱的礼物
在风中寻找从清晨到日暮
我亲爱的小孩
为什么你不让我看清楚
是否让风吹熄了蜡烛
在黑暗中独自漫步
亲爱的小孩
快快擦干你的泪珠
我愿意陪伴你走上回家的路
I salute the People's Liberation Army, the medical teams, the foreign rescue teams and the survivors who had volunteered to help....for their relentless effort in rescuing every possible life underneath those rubble. Even if the earthquake had happened almost a week and chances of survival for anyone underneath those buildings are little.
Join them in prayers:
Help to make the people and the kids smile again, to let them have the schools and the homes they used to have.
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ReplyDeleteI've been trying to read up on more stories of the Earthquake, and reading your entry got me bawling all over. The story where the mother protected her daughter and even left a message on her phone made me cry so hard. The whole earthquake is heart-wrenching. I don't work, and I have school events coming up, so my money's running low, but this natural disaster is so devastating that I'll donate whatever I can to help those that have nothing left. My condolences to those that have lost family members, and my support to those who still have hope, and especially to the rescue teams... all of them, the army, the doctors, everyone who has a hand in helping with the relief.
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