【10.04.15 英国卫报】China earthquake death toll rises

青蛙小王子

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/15/china-earthquake-death-toll-rises

The death toll in the China earthquake rose today as rescue workers scratched through rubble with their hands in the search for survivors in a remote part of the Tibetan plateau.

More than 600 people are reported dead, 9,000 injured and 300 still missing, although hundreds of people have been pulled free alive, according to state media. About 15,000 homes are thought to have collapsed and 100,000 people will need to be relocated, authorities said.
Amid warnings that the death toll was likely to rise, the government dispatched more than 3,000 paramilitary police and disaster response specialists to Yushu county, Qinghai province, where 85% of the buildings were said to have collapsed in the hardest hit community.
TV footage of soldiers scrabbling to reach children trapped or buried under collapsed schools rekindled memories of the earthquake that killed 87,000 in neighbouring Sichuan two years ago. As with Sichuan, a big concern was the stability of a cracked dam, which prompted many residents to flee into the mountains. Yushu is home to the headwaters of three of Asia's greatest rivers, the Yangtze, Mekong and Yellow, all of which are used for hydropower generation. "A dam has cracked," Xinhua News Agency said, and "workers are trying to prevent the outflow of water". The size of the dam and extent of damage were unclear.
Rescue teams are frantically trying to get medical supplies, tents, warm clothing, sanitation and food to the stricken area where many survivors spent the night outside , some gathering in an area used for horse races, as temperatures fell below freezing and aftershocks continued. Some had wounds that could not be treated immediately because of limited medical supplies and doctors. "This feels like a war zone. It's a complete mess. At night people were crying and shouting. Women were crying for their families" said Ren Yu, general manager of Yushu Hotel in Jiegu, a town 20 miles from the epicentre of the quake where reportedly almost every home juddered to the ground either in the quake or during aftershocks.
"Some of the people have broken legs or arms but all they can get now is an injection. They were crying in pain."
Rescue work concentrated on collapsed schools, where the state news agency said at least 66 students and 10 teachers died. Seventy per cent of schools in Yushu are reported to have collapsed. Yen said hotel staff who helped in the rescue work described horrific injuries. People slept in streets with nothing more than blankets, said Tashi Tsering, director of Jinpa, a charity supporting education and health projects in Yushu. "It's very ghastly. The whole town has come down. Most of the houses are made of wood and mud so they have totally collapsed to the ground. I'm sure there are some alive underneath, but I don't think there are many of them."
Television showed rescue workers finding a girl who had been trapped for more than 12 hours under debris. "I can't feel my arm", said the girl as helpers fed her water and others search for wood to prop up the rubble trapping her. As the rescuers pulled her out and carried her to a stretcher, she said: "I'm sorry for the trouble. Thank you, I will never forget this."
The latest casualty figures suggest 617 people have died and that the more than 9000 injured include 970 seriously hurt. Military convoys today were winding along a two-lane highway leading to the quake zone from Xining, the nearest big city 530 miles away. Troops, firefighters and teams leading dozens of sniffer dogs were whisked onto waiting buses at the city's airport to join the rescue effort.
According to the China earthquake networks centre, the 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck at 7.49am yesterday at a depth of six miles below the surface, toppling buildings and shaking Buddhist stuppas and monasteries in the mainly Tibetan region.
The local headquarters of the Communist party collapsed and the wall of the Yushu hotel was ruptured.
Rescue teams who arrived soon after the quake said they lacked heavy lifting equipment to shift rubble. "We have to mainly rely on our hands to clear away the debris as we have no large excavating machines," said Shi Huajie, an army police officer. "We have no medical equipment either.".

It is hoped casualties might be fewer than in Sichuan because of the low population density and the lighter building materials. Yushu sits at about 4,000 metres, higher than Lhasa. Homes in this region are often made from earth and wood.

Hu Jintao, China's president, and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, ordered a rapid response. Five thousand tents and 100,000 thick cotton coats and heavy blankets were being sent for survivors, the Qinghai government said. Central government has earmarked 50m yuan (about $5m) for infrastructure repairs.
Rescue work has been hindered by infrastructure damage. The nearest airport is damaged, roads to the provincial capital are buckled and telecom authorities say 35 of 82 transmission stations are out of action.
Until recently most of Yushu's 87,000 population were nomadic Tibetan herders but many have been moved to urban centres under a resettlement policy. The change in lifestyle and tensions over land use are thought to have contributed to unrest in 2008 in Tibetan communities on the plateau.
Tibetan exile groups expressed sympathy but also concerns about the shoddy construction of buildings that many nomads now live in.
However, Stephanie Brigden, Free Tibet's director, acknowledged that the build-up of soldiers and paramilitaries in the region since the riots of 2008 could have helped save people. "We are encouraged that in response to the tragedy the military have been mobilised to assist in search and rescue."