加拿大华人论坛 加拿大生活信息Updates on 5.12 earthquake

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China airlifts aid to remote villages hit by quake AN XIAN, China - Military helicopters dropped food and medicine to Chinese earthquake survivors who remained cut off Wednesday in remote mountain villages behind roads clogged by landslides. The official death toll of more than 12,000 appeared certain to soar as several thousand more bodies were found. Some victims trapped for more than two days under collapsed buildings were still being pulled out alive in delicate rescues. But the number of bodies grew along with survivors' frustrations in finding out what happened to thousands of missing. The scale of devastation became clearer as more rescuers walked into the hardest-hit areas of central Sichuan province, finding towns where 80 percent of the population fell victim to Monday's magnitude 7.9 quake.The official Xinhua News Agency reported 7,700 people died in Yingxiu town, near the epicenter. It was unclear if the new figure was in addition to overall toll.Xinhua also reported that 178 children were confirmed dead in one school in Qingchuan in northern Sichuan. The agency added that the confirmed death toll for Mianyang city rose to 5,430 on Wednesday. More than 18,000 people there were still thought to be buried under crushed buildings.Government officials told Xinhua rescuers who hiked into the Wenchuan county town of Yingxiu found it "much worse than expected." Xinhua said the survivors in Yingxiu "desperately needed medical help, food and water."Roads leading to Wenchuan from all directions were still being cleared of debris, Feng Zhenglin, deputy minister of railway and transportation, said in Beijing.Relief efforts were aided in their third day by the clearing of storms that had prevented flights over some of the worst-hit towns. Military helicopters seen flying north over Dujiangyan, and Xinhua said two of them airdropped food, drinking water and medicine to Yingxiu.A 3-year-old girl who was trapped for more than 40 hours under the bodies of her parents in Beichuan region was pulled to safety, Xinhua said.Rescuers found Song Xinyi on Tuesday morning, but were unable to pull her out right away due to fears the debris above her would collapse. She was fed and shielded from the rain until rescuers extricated her from the rubble.Premier Wen Jiabao looked over her wounds, part of his highly publicized tour of the disaster area aimed at reassuring the public about the government's response and to show it is ready to host the Beijing Olympics in August. Wednesday's leg of the Olympic torch relay in the southeastern city of Ruijin began with a minute of silence.Wen said some 100,000 troops and police had been dispatched to the disaster zone. He also visited a school Wednesday in Beichuan where two classroom buildings collapsed in the earthquake, including a school with 2,000 students that state TV said sustained "heavy casualties."East of the epicenter in the town of Hanwang, about 60 bodies wrapped in plastic were laid out as sobbing relatives walked among them. Feet and hands were sticking through the plastic wrapped around some of the bodies.Some were covered with tree branches or flowers, and relatives burned paper money to be used in the afterlife.As people mourned, rescue workers in blue uniforms continued to bring out bodies they have had been keeping in the Dongqi sports arena. It was unclear whether the corpses were from Hanwang or elsewhere.Most of the buildings in Hanwang, which is surrounded by mountains, had been left in twisted piles by the quake, and cranes were tearing down what was left of any buildings still standing. Farther north in An Xian, on the road to Beichuan, a hard-hit area on the edge of the quake's epicenter, a group of survivors huddled by the road in a makeshift tent to protect them from the rain. Government buses have carried some survivors out of Beichuan, but Li Zizhong, a 38-year-old farmer, said he had not heard from his relatives there yet. "Who knows what happened to them," Li said. "All we need is a little something to eat. I'm just happy to be alive." Li and a friend, Zhang Mingfu, 44, had built a wood and plastic shelter with a straw floor where about 30 family members spent the night. Their destroyed homes were in the background. "I feel lucky. It's the people in the mountains that we are worrying about, they are our relatives," Zhang said. Authorities had blocked the road to Beichuan to regular traffic to allow rescue vehicles access. China also reported Wednesday that a 3-year-old Taiwanese boy was among the victims. Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Li Weiyi said two other Taiwanese were hurt in the quake. Meanwhile, Mianyang, an industrial city of 700,000 people and home to the headquarters of China's nuclear weapons design industry, had turned into a thronging refugee camp. The devastation and ramped-up rescue across a large, heavily populated region of farms and factory towns strained local governments. Food dwindled on the shelves of the few stores that remained open. Gasoline was scarce, with long lines outside some stations and pumps marked "empty." Price gouging was evident at some store that were open. A package of instant noodles normally selling for 35 cents now costs $1.15. The government's high-gear response aimed to reassure Chinese while showing the world it was capable of handling the disaster and was ready for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics in Beijing. Although the government said it welcomed outside aid, officials said it would accept only money and supplies, not foreign personnel. Bowing to public calls, Beijing Olympics organizers scaled down the boisterous ongoing torch relay, with Wednesday's leg in the southeastern city of Ruijin beginning with a minute of silence. The torch is scheduled to arrive in quake-hit areas next month. ___ Associated Press writers Christopher Bodeen and Bill Foreman in Dujiangyan contributed to this report.

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2008/08/02 - 2010/06/30 Vancouver2010/07/01 - 2012/05/31 Toronto2012/06/01---------------- Montreal回复: Updates on 5.12 earthquakeAbstracted from an online reading, a dialogue between a US seismologist and a reporter.Q: How common are earthquakes in the Midwest and was the severity of this tremor a first for this area?A: Between 1776 and the present, 170 earthquakes have been charted in Ohio of magnitude 2.0 or greater. There have been at least 150 below magnitude 2.0, which averages out to approximately 1½ earthquakes a year. This latest was not a first, severity-wise: Several others measured inbetween 5.3 and 5.4; in 1980, for example, an earthquake in Sharpsburg, Ky., measured 5.2.Q: Can anyone predict a “big one” ever hitting the Midwest?A: We haven’t reached that level of sophistication yet. That would require predicting, simultaneously, location, timing and magnitude, Kilinc says, “and that’s virtually impossible.” He adds that seismologists in San Francisco, may, however, say the probability of a magnitude 6 earthquake within the next 30 years is 50 percent.Q: What is Cincinnati’s proximity to the nearest fault line?A: Cincinnati is not on or close to a fault line, Kilinc says. The nearest active one is the New Madrid Fault Line, about 350 miles west of Cincinnati. The last major (7.5 or higher) New Madrid-line earthquake was in December 1811 and January 1812. The fault line actually closest to Cincinnati, Kilinc adds, is just south of Lexington, Ky., but it’s not currently active.Q: People have commented that their dog or cat woke them up during this Midwest-based earthquake. Others say they’ve heard all their lives that animal behavior – and even illnesses of people – can predict an earthquake. How far back in history does such thinking go and is there any validity in it?A: The U.S. Geological Survey says that references to unusual animal behavior before a significant earthquake date to 373 BC in Greece. Kilinc says that for many years, Chinese scientists in particular watched what they called precursors, such as animal behavior and radon in water, in terms of earthquake prediction. None of the signs they were watching for, he adds, showed up in Tangshan, China, on July 28, 1976. That’s the day an estimated 247,000 people died in China’s deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. Its magnitude was 7.8.Q: For those who have been through a major earthquake in California, this has to seem like barely a rumble. Yet, for many Midwesterners, an earthquake can literally rattle the nerves! How seriously should we take such an occurrence and is there any preparation one can make for an earthquake?A: Residents of any area should always be prepared for earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes and so forth, making logical preparations that are similar no matter the disaster. For example, if there’s a strong earthquake or tornado and electricity is lost, many people’s first reaction is to strike a match so they can see — and can cause an explosion in a gas line. Also, people tend to want to rush out of an area affected by an earthquake. Kilinc, a former California resident who’s been through many temblors in the Bay Area, says that most people are killed “trying to get in or out,” so staying put is important. Little things matter, too, such as not putting dangerous chemicals on upper shelves in a laundry room.Q: Finally: Another widely spread urban legend claims that California will someday fall into the ocean. While that’s not going to happen, how long could it take, as the Pacific Plate moves, before Los Angeles is close to San Francisco?A: California, Kilinc says, “will never fall into the ocean” because of a boundary called a transform fault. San Francisco will shift south and Los Angeles, north — but it will take a “long, long time” for them to meet. The USGS says that tectonic forces “in this part of the world are driving the Pacific Plate in a north-northwesterly direction with respect to the North American plate at approximately 46 millimeters per year in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

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