四川 估十萬死
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四川省副省長李成雲昨天在記者會上說，到昨天下午四時的不完全統計，四川遇難人數逾一萬兩千人，受傷人數兩萬六千兩百零六人，另活埋九千四百零四人，倒塌和損壞房屋三百四十六萬間。 汶川七萬人 失聯 雖然四川官方公布活埋九千多人，不過，昨晚綿陽傳出有一萬八千人被活埋，且震央的汶川縣原先就有約七萬民眾失去消息，估計這次強震死亡人數恐逼近十萬。 四川十多個州市都傳出災情，其中四個地區最嚴重：阿壩州的汶川縣，都江堰市，綿陽市的北川縣，德陽市的綿竹、什邡。昨天傳出最新災情，汶川縣鄰近城市彭州市，有十萬民眾被堵在山中，救災人員和物資無法運入。
天氣壞 空降不成 溫家寶昨天探視災區時，難過地流下淚來，身旁的民眾哭聲不斷。許多災區民眾在瓦礫堆前哭尋自己的親人，一聲聲喚著親人的名字。 大地震造成汶川、德陽、綿陽等地交通、通訊全面中斷，陸、海、空三路都受阻。中共軍方昨天原擬出動兩個師的空降兵和特種部隊約六千人，以傘兵跳傘方式直接到失聯的震央災區，但天氣太壞，計畫取消。 |
Responding to disaster
May 12th 2008 | BEIJING
From Economist.com
An earthquake kills several thousand people in China, as authorities try to react fast
ANOTHER natural disaster in another Asian country claims many thousand lives. But the response of China’s government to an earthquake that struck the central Sichuan province on the afternoon of Monday May 12th appears to be strikingly different to that of Myanmar’s brutal regime after its cyclone earlier this month. News of the cyclone took several days to trickle out from Myanmar, where the government’s response has been desperately inadequate. In contrast, details of China’s earthquake are being spread quickly, and the official response has so far been unusually open.
Within 12 hours of the massive earthquake in China, the authorities reported that nearly 9,000 people had been killed. They also gave warning that casualty figures are likely to rise. The quake struck at 14:28 local time on Monday, when children were at school and many workers were in their offices and factories. The epicentre was in Wenchuan County, some 90km northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu.
Measured at a magnitude of 7.8 by Chinese authorities and at 7.9 by the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake flattened schools and other buildings, interrupted transport, water and telecommunications services, and rattled tall buildings in many of China's largest cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, several hundred kilometres away. Tremors registering at a magnitude of 3.9 were felt in Beijing, provoking frantic evacuations at office towers throughout the city.
China’s central government responded promptly. President Hu Jintao has called for an “all-out” effort to rescue survivors and to provide for the injured. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flew to Sichuan within hours of the earthquake, telling state-run media en route that China faced “a major disaster” and calling for “calm” and “courage”. Coming from a government that usually strives to downplay bad news, this is a clear indication of a truly dire situation.
According to state media, Chinese army units are being deployed to assist with relief work (again in contrast to the ineffective army in Burma). One immediate priority was a site in Juyuan Township, about 100km from the epicentre, where 900 youths were thought to be buried under the rubble of their collapsed three-storey school. Chinese media said cranes were excavating the sites as children cried for help from beneath the detritus and as ambulances waited together with frantic parents.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported 8,533 deaths in Sichuan alone, as well as scores more deaths in neighbouring provinces. In Sichuan's Beichuan County, some 80% of buildings were reported to have collapsed. Damage at a chemical plant was also reported, with hundreds of people buried and tonnes of poisonous liquid ammonia released. Train and air services into Chengdu and surrounding areas have been badly disrupted. Telephone services, both fixed line and wireless, have also been damaged.
As Beijing prepares to host the summer Olympic Games in less than three months, officials were quick to report that the city's dozens of Olympic venues were built to withstand earthquakes and that none had suffered damage. Authorities also said that no damage was observed at the massive Three Gorges Dam, located on the Yangtze River, several hundred kilometres east of the epicentre. That is just as well. Holding back an enormous reservoir, the dam was built in the face of strong opposition from critics who gave warning, among other things, that it would be vulnerable to earthquake damage that might cause disastrous floods.
China has moved quickly to mobilise, but has yet to respond to offers of foreign aid from the governments of Japan, the Czech Republic and others. Given the magnitude of the disaster, and the likely increase in the death toll, China certainly faces further tests on the efficacy of its response. It may also be troubled by unsettling questions about its level of pre-earthquake preparedness. It is one thing to build dams and Olympic venues to proper standards, but with so many other buildings collapsing particular scrutiny may fall on China's system for setting and enforcing construction codes in earthquake-prone zones such as Sichuan.
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