Earthquake of a magnitude 7.8 reported in China *UPDATE* 'to top 50,000' killed

reply to post by jpm1602

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So you live on the New Madrid also. I think about the safety of all these old brick cities and the the gas supply lines that run along the fault line from the gulf coast. If we suffer an earthquake big enough to damage all those lines the whole East Coast will suffer. I wonder if bats can predict as did the frogs in China..my neighborhood is full of bats.

a mother used her body to protect her around 4 months baby.. when the soldiers found her, the mother had died but the baby was just sleeping and safe.. when doctors saw the baby , they found a cellphone in baby's clothe showing a message goes "dear baby, if you succeed to go through, you ought to know that i love you very much."

that is one most heartbreaking story i heard tonight.

[edit on 16-5-2008 by wwssii]

[edit on 16-5-2008 by wwssii]

had to post this news article... after I log off from ats I check online news and just read this:



seems to me, the Chinese Govt are doing everything they can and comments suggesting the communist Govt do not care is terrible. I believe from various reports, they have done whatever they could do!

At least their President hasn't flown over and made insensitive comments such as "I went to that college once and played sport" totally disregarding the New Orleans residents dead still floating in the water...

also there is further concern for this region:



Australia announces aid for quake victims

22069 official deathtoll..... speechless....

I think this picture says a lot about the efforts by the rescue workers and dogs....

image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10486/10486211.jpg


For more pictures of exhausted and hurt sniffer dogs... --> news.qq.com...





[edit on 16/5/08 by IchiNiSan]

reply to post by jpvskyfreak

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I'm also a Hong Kong Chinese, living in the mainland... And know about the frustrations about the donations, personally I am mostly annoyed by Pepsi "relief package": 5000 boxes of Pepsi Cokes and 100 Umbrellas (with Pepsi logo). I mean what is this for relief???... But let's put aside these relatively minor political issues and focus on the priorities... saving people's lives.... tomorrow is the collection event organized in HK, let's see what we can do for our brothers and sisters in Sichuan....

Is it possible that the quake was caused in part by the Three Gorge Dam? I can imagine the tremdous weight of all that water built up over a relitively short period of time causing problems with fault lines. Any know how close the dam is to the epicenter for sure? I read it was about 80 kilometers away. Thank God the dam didnt let loose or this disaster whould have been far worse.

You all are questioning the lights and sounds that preceded the quake.
I thought that the connection between earthquakes and electrical phenomena was well known. See Here:

electrical phenomena

So does the world help China or Burma right now?

I think China has enough people to cope with their own, as bad as it might sound but Burma looks more poor and helpless and needs the world to help it.

reply to post by The time lord

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I do feel the world is helping China A LOT!!!!

I just heard that the second Japanese rescue flew to China, and Korean's rescue team also arrived. Russia has close to 100 specialists in China helping, their second team will also arrive today. I bet that now the logistics is getting better, that the Aussies might be flown over soon as well. From "Chinese" regions, Hong Kong and Taiwan have sent specialists & rescue workers too. And I certainly still miss to show my gratefullness for the many great supports, like France sending over a plane of relief supplies, or Saudi Arab donated 50 million USD and 10 million worth of relief material, or India another 5 million USD and so on and so on.

I will dig up some more information of the worldwide for you guys when I see something noteworthy. You can also check Wiki en.wikipedia.org...

Unfortunately we humans tend to look at the "visible support and help", especially in monetary value and to weight "how sincere" someone is in their response to a crisis. How timely the response is, and compared to their country's size and "world importance" "how much efforts/supports" are provided... Look, nobody will complaint that Cambodia is trying to show a gesture with a donation, this will be welcomed very much. But when the Federal government of USA and combined still "only" 500,000 for a "big country", I can imagine why the frustration among many, thinking "why they are ungrateful when we donated a zero more for Katrina". Sigh. We are humans...


[edit on 16/5/08 by IchiNiSan]

UNBELIEVABLE NEWS:

news.qq.com...
Use Google translator if you want to know exactly what is written....

It says that they caught about 30 guys pretending to be volunteers and went into not-collapsed buildings yet to loot....

EDIT:
- Most of them have a criminal background
- Security is increased


[edit on 16/5/08 by IchiNiSan]

I just read about a substantial aftershock that has damaged roads further and knocked out power in some areas.

news.yahoo.com...

The good news is that in most cases aftershocks reduce in intensity, so the worst should be past.

reply to post by AceWombat04

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Aftershocks is terrible... it is now predicted that the coming days we will still need to expect the worst and be prepared for aftershocks of 5s & 6s....

[edit on 16/5/08 by IchiNiSan]

I guess they figure you get enough from us via the trade deficit.

Time to shift some of that 30% GDP for military into helping the citizens now.

I'm glad to hear things are going good in the rescue efforts and there are contributions to the well-being of the Chinese people, both by their government and other nations.

image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10485/10485523.jpg

Children in quarantaine for reducing risks of infections...

image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10478/10478695.jpg

A Church destroyed, yes in China it is allowed to build churches and temples...


image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10493/10493357.jpg

image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10493/10493358.jpg

Russian rescue workers...thank you!


image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10439/10439463.jpg


[edit on 16/5/08 by IchiNiSan]

Helicopters flying to assist:


image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10485/10485700.jpg

China's only super-size helicopter, after maintenance dispatched to assist. What is this for model?

image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10485/10485701.jpg


image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10485/10485702.jpg


Said something about 9 of these kinds of helicopters are being dispatched from China's northern province....

news.qq.com...

Del? any info about these copters, and were they suitable for heavy weather flying?

China's biggest earthquakes for the past one hundred years.

image source: http://img1.qq.com/news/pics/10497/10497418.jpg


1920 Dec 16 - 8.5 - 240,000 deathtoll
1927 May 23 - 8.0 - 40,000 deathtoll
1932 Dec 25 - 7.6 - 70,000 deathtoll
1933 Aug 25 - 7.5 - 20,000 deathtoll
1950 Aug 15 - 8.5 - 4,000 deathtoll
1966 Mar 8 & 22 - 6.8 & 7.2 - 8,000 deathtoll
1970 Jan 5 - 7.7 - 15,000 deathtoll
1976 Jul 28 - 7.8 - 242,000 deathtoll
1999 Sep 21 - 7.3 - 2,000 deathtoll
2008 May 12 - 7.8 - ? deathtoll

On the msnbc.com news page there is a breaking news story that says:

BREAKING NEWS: Witnesses say China quake victims flee on flood fears, but no water seen

Any information on this would be appreciated.

reply to post by gs001

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China has about 20 hawks. They were purchased in early 80's if I remember correctly. China had a near-non existent (or at least very weak) chopper force, which have only been improving in recent years. The Navy have some French Dolphins which the Chinese have purchase the licensed to build under the name of Z-9. That and the Hawk are the only modern choppers China have, the rest are mostly aging Mi-6 and Mi-8's.

One of the chopper squadrons that flew the rescue mission was formed only last year, I don't know if they were they ones that turned back though. We could really use some more modern heavy lifters, hopefully the government will pay more attention to this area of development after the crisis.

reply to post by jhill76

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Story here:

news.bbc.co.uk...


A river has overflowed in Beichuan. Sounds like there was a stampede. developing story...

www.liberation.fr...

Would someone who know french help me look at the above link? If the google translator is correct, it contained very inhumane commentary.

Is that how westerners typically think in face of a crisis?

Would someone mind telling this particular french paper that it's stepping dangerously into the bound of nazism?

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Moderator note:
Google translation of page

[edit on 17-5-2008 by dbates]