May 15, 2008
The China meeting "serious problems"
The army was trying to find survivors Wednesday, May 14 amid the rubble of the city of Dujiangyan.
The China meeting "serious problems" on the security of water facilities in south-west of the country after the earthquake on Monday, said Thursday the Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei, quoted by China New Agency.
"China will encounter serious problems of security and prevention of floods in reservoirs, hydroelectric plants, dams and other facilities in the earthquake zone" in Sichuan Province, said the minister.
The Chinese government has accepted Japan's offer to send a team of experts to participate in relief operations in south-west China devastated by the earthquake, announced Thursday the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang. It is the first team of foreign experts allowed to travel on the ground.
The earthquake that struck south-west China, the most violent since more than thirty years, has officially made nearly 15,000 deaths and tens of thousands of missing, as the army tried to regain Wednesday amid the rubble.
"The Chinese government has agreed with the Japanese government about sending a team of experts (Japanese) in Sichuan Province to participate in relief operations after the earthquake," said Qin in a statement. He said that sixty specialists would probably be sent to China, but the need to explore the best route to arrive on site as soon as possible. China had so far declined all offers to send experts, arguing logistical problems, but has accepted aid in kind and money.
Wednesday, in Tokyo, a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had insisted on the need to act quickly. "The possibility of finding people still alive decreases three days after such a catastrophe," he said, stressing that Japan was able to quickly send 80 rescuers with dogs, nurses and doctors. Australia and South Korea are also teams of specialists ready to leave.
China has so far allowed only volunteers a Buddhist foundation in Taiwan and a team of the Red Cross of Hong Kong to participate in relief in Sichuan. Volunteers from the Army Hi Hong Kong have joined the province of Yunnan, neighboring Sichuan, but they were asked not to go further until the roads are released, according to Simon Wong, l 'Army Hi.
The last review, prepared Wednesday at 14h00 (06h00 GMT), was 14,866 dead, 14,463 dead in Sichuan Province alone, devastated Monday by the earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale. This assessment was still very tentative, not taking into account some figures at the local level, as in the city of Yingxiu where 7,700 dead have been identified.
In addition, tens of thousands of people were still unaccounted for, as in Shifang city, located near the epicentre of the earthquake, where more than 30,000 people were reported missing or injoignables, according to official media. The casualties are steadily worsened as manage information from the most remote areas.
Earthquake in China: the hydraulic threatened
© 2008 AFP
Earthquake in China: the hydraulic threatened
According to the police army, attached to the Ministry of Defence and quoted by the official media, several cities around Wenchuan, epicentre of the quake, were completely razed. " "There are more houses in several towns and villages. Everything has been razed," said Wang Yi, head of a unit of the armed police, quoted by a website.
Earthquake in China: the hydraulic threatened
© 2008 AFP
Earthquake in China: the hydraulic threatened
A Yingxiu, cries amounted to piles of concrete and steel beams at the scene of a school totally destroyed. But the inhabitants of the village in the mountainous district of Wenchuan, were reduced to rummaging through the rubble with bare hands, told the official news agency Xinhua (New China). "The situation is worse than what we feared," said a local official, arrived at the scene by climbing the mountain.
Earthquake in China: the hydraulic threatened
© 2008 AFP
Earthquake in China: the hydraulic threatened
Most roads have been damaged by earthquakes or rendered impassable by landslides and mudslides. The rescuers were forced to grow up to access locations scattered around this mountainous area of Sichuan, which limits the volume of food and medicines carried.
Near the school in Dujiangyan, Li Jun, a steel worker of 20 years, watched the families who watched the dead children. "I have no more home, she collapsed, there's nothing more, now I expect that the Government will come to rebuild," he said in an AFP journalist. Li Haijun, 29, whose younger brother was under the rubble, complained about the slow pace of work and relief, apostrophant the military. "We need water, food, there was more place to live," he said.
Bad weather has again slowed down the work of rescuers and the delivery of essential goods and materials excavation.
In the first line on the relief front, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has nevertheless managed Wednesday to send helicopters in charge of food and medicine to these areas, as the city of Wenchuan, and carried out airdrops. Xinhua announced that the PLA had made Wednesday its largest air transport operation on a single day, with 79 flights and around 11,500 soldiers carried.
The Chinese television broadcast continuous images of the body removed from the rubble, but also survivors, often seriously injured in the collapse of schools, factories, hospitals and housing. A 3-year girl was found alive after spending more than 40 hours under the bodies of his parents buried under tons of rubble. According to websites, a woman eight months pregnant was located in Dujiangyan and rescuers s'activaient Wednesday to remove debris.
The earthquake was the worst ever experienced China since that of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976, which had 242,000 dead according to official results.
by erectusplus at 10:45 AM |
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