5,500 rescued from debris in quake-hit China

5,500 rescued from debris in quake-hit China

Too many people sitting around happy being victims. Have to mobilize them to help with digging.

Many dead, many orphans...
:eek:
China: Quake toll surpasses 60,000
May 24, 2008 — Death toll surpasses 60,000, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says; U.N. chief tours quake epicenter Saturday; Officials appeal for millions of tents to shelter 5 million people made homeless

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China’s Premier Wen Jiabao Saturday gave U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon a dramatic look at damage caused by the massive quake that hit Sichuan province earlier this month as the death toll from the catastrophe jumped past 60,000. A strong aftershock shook the town of Yingxiu, a small town near the epicenter of May 12’s 7.9 magnitude quake, as Wen and Ban toured the area. “The world will not forget," Ban told Wen, who appealed the U.N. chief to help raise international aid for the region.

China’s central government announced Saturday that the death toll had risen to 60,560 with another 26,221 people missing and 353,290 injured. Nearly every building in Yingxiu was destroyed and no residents remain there. About half of the town’s 18,000 residents are either dead or missing and most survivors left on foot, leaving behind a ghost town. Wen predicted that a return to “normal” life in the area would take about three months, adding that the lack of infectious disease outbreaks despite harsh living conditions for survivors had lessened the scope of the disaster. The central government estimates that 45 million people, mostly in the Sichuan province, were affected by the massive earthquake and that five million were left homeless.

China put out an urgent call for tents and medical supplies to help victims of the earthquake. Despite the passage of 12 days since the quake, searchers are still hoping to find people alive under collapsed structures. A government official said Saturday that a rescue operation was under way for 24 coal miners believed trapped in three mines in the quake zone. The government said at least 176 coal miners were killed and 254 were missing in the 316 coal mines affected by quake.

More [url:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/24/china.earthquake/index.html[/url]

See also:

Chinese Quake Orphans Await Adoption
China Estimates That 4,000 Children Lost Their Parents, Many Are Eager To Open Their Homes

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The children’s faces stare in somber black-and-white photos from newspapers and scribbled posters at relief camps, seeking their parents. Many will never find them. As the first estimate of orphans - more than 4,000 - emerged Thursday from last week’s deadly earthquake, thousands of Chinese are rushing to offer their homes. “My husband and I would really like to adopt an earthquake orphan," Wang Liqin wrote on popular Web site Tianya.com in a forum that was already three pages long.

The high interest is another sign of China’s tremendous post-quake outpouring of sympathy, buoyed by rising prosperity. And it’s a surprising turnabout in a country in which government red-tape, poverty and traditional attitudes long combined to discourage adoption. The new enthusiasm also means that Americans and other foreigners wanting to adopt may not have a chance. Officials estimate that the number of Chinese wanting to adopt the earthquake’s orphans may outnumber the orphans themselves.

“Every day, my ministry receives hundreds of calls," Jiang Li, China’s vice minister of Civil Affairs, told reporters this week. At the Civil Affairs department in Sichuan province, the heart of the disaster area, calls reached 2,000 a day, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Some Chinese, reached this week by phone, said they want to adopt because they are unable to have a child of their own. Some see a chance to have a rare second child despite China’s strict one-child policy. And some, like Wang, whose own baby didn’t survive childbirth this year, understand loss and want to help.

More [url:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/22/world/main4121441.shtml[/url]

1-Child Policy Has Exceptions After China Quake...
:cool:
China Drops 1-Child Rule for Quake Victims
May 26, 2008 : China’s 1-child policy makes exceptions for families affected by deadly earthquake

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Chinese officials said Monday that the country’s one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country’s devastating earthquake. Those families can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said. With so many shattered families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines, said a committee official surnamed Wang.

“There are just a lot of cases now, so we need to clarify our policies," said Wang, who declined to elaborate. The May 12 quake was particularly painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children. The earthquake has left more than 65,000 people dead so far, with more than 23,000 missing. Officials have not been able to estimate the number of children killed.

Chinese couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child — but the previously paid fines won’t be refunded. If the couple’s legally born child is killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child — an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including free nine years of compulsory education.

More [url:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4930057[/url]

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China Quake Victims Now Face Flood Threat
May 26, 2008 - Swelling rivers and reservoirs in China are a danger 2 weeks after the quake.

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Soldiers hauled explosives deep into China’s disaster zone Monday to blow up earthquake debris blocking a river whose rising waters threatened to flood already-devastated towns and villages. Storms forecast for the region, meanwhile, added to concerns that rain would put more pressure on weakened dams and reservoirs and cause spillovers from new lakes that have built up behind debris from the earthquake. The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected final toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said 65,080 people were confirmed killed, and 23,150 people remained missing.

Thousands of people had been evacuated from an area downstream from one of the new lakes that was created by a landslide near Beichuan, a town hit hard by the May 12 tremor that devastated Sichuan province. Some 1,800 soldiers, each carrying 22 pounds of explosives, clambered up mountain paths to reach the new lake — already named Tangjiashan — with plans to blast through the debris and drain the water, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The troops didn’t arrive until late Monday, and the blasting was not expected until Tuesday at the earliest. The lake, fed by the Qingzhu River, lay two miles upstream from the center of Beichuan county.

With better weather allowing helicopter flights, heavy equipment was also delivered to the area to help remove debris, state media reported. Tangjiashan lake is one of dozens caused when the magnitude-7.9 quake sent millions of tons of earth and rock tumbling into some of the region’s narrow valleys. Rising waters have already swallowed some villages. “The water was covering the road, and two days later I could not see the roof of my house anymore," said Liu Zhongfu, standing on a hillside looking down at another of the new lakes, which submerged the town of Shuangdian.

More [url:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4929632[/url]