This afternoon, around 2.30pm, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck a remote county of multi ethinic residents in Sichuan Province, 60 miles from Chengdu, capital city of the province.
Nearly all south parts of China felt strong shake. Friends in Wuhan said, she felt dizzy, and heard strange sound like huge wind. Suddenly she was scared if the building would collapse.
For now, no responses with pictures detailing the casualties are put on internet, so I don’t know how badly the damage caused. And, a comparison quote, in 1976, 242,000 people died of Tangshan earthquake, which was magnitude 7.8, actually over 8, and last 15 seconds. But WenChuan, assumed having less high brick buildings than cities, should not have that terrible death toll. I hope not that much.
CCTV news announced the disaster pretty quick, and our Premiere Wen Jiabao is on the way to Wenchuan county. Wen is a good old man! It takes courage and shows responsibility to go there. I wish him best of luck. His presence can assure suffering people get help quicker.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 admin // May 12, 2008 at 6:01 am
@ Rick, did you feel the earthquake?
2 Rick in China // May 18, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Of course. It was only a 5.x in Chengdu - my office is downtown on 13th floor. We were evacuated and not let back in the building afterwards. The problem is people here just did not know how to deal with it, nor were there any official management of all the people flooding into tianfu square and the surrounding areas from downtown offices, no policing or military or aid or anything from the government, it was just a huge mass of people sitting in the square for the entire afternoon, eventually filtering to their homes or sleeping outside. The amusing thing about this all is: IT WASN’T BAD IN CHENGDU! It was clearly felt, however, no shattered glass, no collapsed buildings, barely even cracks in the walls. But people just *freaked*, and continue to freak at the aftershocks (of which there is surprisingly many).
3 Brian // May 19, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I’m glad you’re OK Rick. I didn’t know you were in Chengdu. Sounds like an unimaginable tragedy. I hope all your friends and family are all doing well.
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