An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked southwest China's Sichuan Province and was felt in many other parts of the country on Monday afternoon, leaving more than 12,000 dead.
As rescue and relief operations continue, some people are nervously waiting and some are busy searching.
Some of those for whom they wait and search may have vanished forever.
WAITING IN TEARS
The night for Li Yunxi was as almost long as a year.
Working in a film-production company in Beijing, the 31-year-old was suddenly alerted to the news of Sichuan earthquake on Monday afternoon.
She managed to contact her father in Mianzhu City, which is less than 50 kilometers from the epicenter Wenchuan. He told her by cell phone that he rushed down from the fifth floor and found some doors in the apartment building distorted by the quake.
Li's mother, an official with the local educational bureau, has been out of touch for more than 24 hours.
"She was visiting schools when the quake occurred. The newspapers say at least 200 students were buried in two schools toppled in the quake, is she among the victims?" Li wondered, weeping.
Li's uncle received a phone call from her mother's colleague late on Monday evening. The signal was weak, and all he heard was "she has been rushed to Deyang."
The uncle attempted to drive there immediately, but the car was out of petroleum, and so were the gas stations.
"I couldn't close my eyes the whole night. I am dying to know if she is hurt, or rather, is she still alive at all?" said Li.
Li is one of many who couldn't sleep on Monday night.
In Mianzhu, more than 2,000 people were reported dead as of Tuesday afternoon. Among them was Xian Guifen's husband.
"I witnessed the building of the Bank of China collapse amid screams from the inside," passer-by Li Defang said, shivering at the memory.
Xian's husband was in the building. Her family is waiting at the site for recovery of his body.
DESPERATE ESCAPE
A netizen, nicknamed Han's Secret, recalled his horrible experience in a school in Dujiangyan city this way: "I was sleeping in a dormitory, when suddenly a strange feeling woke me. Opening my eyes, I found the ceiling shaking severely and the lamp dropped down ... With crashing noises, the whole building was swaying.
"Ten seconds later I realized that it was an earthquake and jumped off my bed in dread ... Am I going to die? I flew downstairs without clothes or shoes, finding others running with me. We cautioned each other to be careful not to tumble, as cracks began appearing in the walls ... It was just like a movie ... We spent the whole night on the playground, in spite of the rain," he wrote.
Dujiangyan neighbors Wenchuan, and its distance from the epicenter was about 100 km. Some 900 children of Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan township were feared buried in the quake. As of 3a.m. on Tuesday, rescuers had recovered more than 60 bodies.
Also ruined was the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine with 110 patients and 30 doctors and nurses.
The 38-year-old Deng Huimin said her sister-in-law was a nurse there, who suffered a broken leg.
"She had just finished an operation and was about to have dinner, when the wall toppled, leaving her half-buried," Deng said. She later learned that the six-story hospital building had collapsed.
With the electricity off, the injured nurse has been sent to Chengdu for medical treatment.
"Some people are still buried in the debris, and our security head has been confirmed dead," said an unidentified official at the hospital.
Witnesses, who were hard to reach yesterday due to the communications disruptions, said that bloodied survivors were carried out of the hospital at about 5 p.m. on Monday, while their relatives watched and wailed.
"Many nurses were just in their 20s; some had just married," a female doctor sobbed.
A woman in her 40s was desperately shouting her nephew's name, a story in the Beijing News related. Victims' bodies lined the gate.
THE LOST COUNTY
The county seat of Beichuan, about 160 km northeast of the Wenchuan, was almost leveled.
As of early Tuesday, up to 5,000 people were said to be dead there, having been killed not in collapsed buildings but by landslides.
The county seat was surrounded by hills 500 to 1,000 meters high.
"When the quake struck, rocks rolled down the mountains and buried houses. People had no time to run out, and there was nowhere to run, as roads were blocked," said a survivor surnamed Zhang.
HOPE IN DARKNESS
After the quake, people who dared not return to their apartments chose to sleep outdoors. In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, more than 4 million citizens spent the night in parks, squares and along the roadside.
Some of them lay on newspapers, blankets and plastic sheets. Others waited for dawn by playing cards or mahjong.
At a construction site in the city's eastern suburbs, 400 migrant workers gave up their beds to local people. "We are young and it's all right to stay awake for one night," one worker surnamed Xiong said.
The scene in other places where the lights were off was more tragic.
Fang Guiyou from Dujiangyan was squeezed into a shelter made of advertising posters, along with six relatives, including a sick one aged above 80.
They hadn't eaten anything in a day. "But what we need most urgently is a tent," he said.
In Mianyang, Han Ruixue's parents are hoping for restoration of water and power supply.
"The supermarkets are almost empty now," said the 31-year-old daughter in Beijing. She has asked a friend there to give her parents some food and drinking water.
In the Xinjian Primary School of Dujiangyan, where as many as 500 students were in class when the catastrophe took place, armed police and soldiers were searching for the living by digging in the debris.
Outside the gate, red-eyed parents murmured their children's names. With his own hands, a man surnamed Xie dug out two children from the debris in midnight, while his own son, fourth-grader Lingfeng, was still missing.
A photo on Xinhuanet showed students sitting under shelters with plastic and iron poles at the neighboring Juyuan Middle School, while the bodies of some victims, covered with plastic cloth, lay in the front.
A woman surnamed Wu posted her diary on the Internet, in which she depicted the rescue scene in that school.
"It is already 2 a.m. and under bright lights, rescuers are busy searching. At the other side was dim candlelight provided by parents ... the air smelled of blood and the ground was crimson," she said.
"When each body was carried out, parents hurried to identify ... They could only identify by the color of socks or the length of nails, as some victims' faces were unidentifiable."
Efforts of rescuers paid off when a survivor was pulled out.
Qingqing, who had been buried in debris for 20 hours, saw light again.
The girl from a primary school in Mianzhu was buried with more than 300 teachers and schoolmates. After coming out, her first wish was for water. Rescuers had to offer her with small bottle lid out of fear of worsening probably internal injuries.
Volunteers joined in the rescue efforts. "I didn't eat or drink since yesterday evening. I just want to save more kids," said a man who came with 40 friends and was unwilling to reveal his name.
GOVERNMENT, RELIEF WORKERS MOBILIZED
Premier Wen Jiabao, who is in the city of Dujiangyan, has askedrelief military personnel waiting there to enter the area as soon as possible even if they have to walk to the epicenter of Wenchuan.
"Road access to Wenchuan, which is key to our disaster relief work, must be made at all costs. Water and power supplies and telecommunication in quake-hit areas should be restored as soon as possible," Wen demanded.
The Ministry of Health has urged the public to donate blood to help victims of the quake. As of Tuesday morning, the ministry had organized a emergency response medical team of 1,000 members and will depart for the disaster-hit areas in line with their needs.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission has activated its highest possible emergency response and promised all-out efforts to restore power.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article