China Earthquake

viraj

This is really tragic for china..

900 students are feared dead... hope the olympics are not affected by the quake..

All my sympthy to all who have lost there loved ones..

God keep there sole in peace..

coolclay

Yea, its horrible, it's really sad when natural disasters strike.

nilsmo

Seems like a pretty strong hurricane (7.9), too.

[edit] I mean earthquake.

missdixy

The death toll has since increased to like 12,000 and is probably still increasing. . It's really sad, I wish there was something I could do to help. I don't even want to think of all the people who have lost family members. Also, it's sad that a lot of the victims were children in schools.

maeglin20 · RiP to all. Remember 17 August 1999 (Istanbul Earthquake)..

RiP to all.

Remember 17 August 1999 (Istanbul Earthquake)..

paul_indo

There seem to be so many natural disasters happening every year these days. Is it really much more or is it better communications that keeps us informed of events we never used to hear about?

icecool

rshanthakumar

May God help them bear the tryst with fortitude. Let Him give them strength and courage to fight against the odds that they are facing now.

loryl

The worst thing is that local governments totally cut corners on financing the construction of school buildings. The 900 dead due to a school building collapse mentioned by a poster above isn't unique. Some towns have lost an entire generation of people due to poorly constructed buildings.

In a way, it's nice that the Olympics are coming to Beijing soon. It forces China to not alienate themselves from the scrutinizes eyes of the world and attempt to fix this mess themselves.

Ghost Rider103

Yeah that is jus amazing on the death toll that this has become to.

Wow, 900 students feared dead? I didn't hear that one, but that is just really sad to think about, I mean they are just kids, still in their teenage years, and possibly below....

liljp617

viraj

the most sad part of this was the school children who got burried in the school.. god plz dont do such things to the mankind...

Let there soles rest in peace..

Kelvin

Yes it's very tragic that these natural disasters are happening one after the other. It really sad to read that to rescue these children, many had to be amputated on the spot without anestetic and by using whatever tools they have eg. the fireman's axe. What's worse is that after freeing them, they don't make it.

You may want to look at this site about weird things happening in China 2 days before the quake:

Strange phenomenon in the sky before earthquake struck in China………
http://pinewooddesign.co.uk/2008/05/12/earthquake-cloud-prediction/

Kelvin

Since we are at the topic of earthquake discussion, I missed out this one and feel that it's important that everyone knows the DOs and DONTs during an earthquake. Spread the word around and you may just save someone:

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE: "TRIANGLE OF LIFE"

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the
American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced
rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams
from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a
member of many rescue teams from many countries.

I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I
have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for
simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City
during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child
was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by
lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and
I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time
know that the children were told to hide under something.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings
falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a
space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life".
The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the
object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that
the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next
time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you
see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see,
in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1.) Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE
are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or
cars, are crushed.

2.) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position.
You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival
instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object,
next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress
slightly but leave a void next to it.

3.) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during
an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake.
If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created.
Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick
buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but
less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4.) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply
roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a
much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on
The back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on
the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5.) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out
the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to
a sofa, or large chair.

6.) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is
killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or
backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam
falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case,
you will be killed!

7.) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different "moment of
frequency" (they swing separately from the main part of the building).
The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each
other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get
on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly
mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the
stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the
stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when
overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety,
even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8.) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible
- It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than
the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the
building the greater the probability that your escape route will be
blocked.

9.) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls
in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened
with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of
the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were
all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or
lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had
been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the
crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had
columns fall directly across them.

10.) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices
and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact.
Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone's life... The Entire world is
experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

"We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly"

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be
correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of
Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific
test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten
mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used in my
"triangle of life" survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we
crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the
results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under
directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building
collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those
doing duck
and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using
my method of the "triangle of life." This film has been seen by millions
of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe , and it was seen
in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV

MunMun2o2o

So sad for the Si chuan city people who were dead during the earthquake ....now the rate of the earthquake is 8.0.....
We have no idea how to save these people...
Lucky fortune for those who did not dead during the earthquake....

I heard 1 tip : When during a earthquake happen ,(if your house near a field or play ground) go to the field or playground for your safety and you might follow the Kelvin's tips.

pmfiebig

The earthquake has been very sad and traumatic for the Chinese people. But I've heard now that the Chinese government will at least let familys start to have more than one child again.

Cddhesh

This incident was really a sad one in this year 2008(till now).May god give the suffering people strength to stand in their life again.According to me China should spent some time in looking at this earthquake matter.In technology they are so ahead,why cant they build houses of fiber or di-cast metal.
Earthquake can be a big loss to China economy.

thejam

yeah i think this tragic dissaster should make China think about the earthquake issue. China is a high risk area when it comes to earthquakes. China also has quite some intens populated areas, where if a quake would happen, the damage and victims will be even more. Although the amount of people died in this earthquake is already so horrible much, it could get worse then this. Especially the quality of a lot of high rise buildings which is not that great at all. Most of these modern high rise are pretty contemporary projects. You can tell by the quality of materials, and the way they construct it. I am worried, and i hope to see more and stronger regulations when it comes to quality of buildings, cause it could save a lot of material and especially emotional damage..like we've all seen in Sichuan.

jordygrunn

R.I.P
i live in Holland
its not dangerous here...
no war,no earthquake hmmmm....

Aiz

Cddhesh is right about the earthquake's damage to the economy.

For instance, my aunt in northern China told me that the stock market has be pretty bad since the quake =/

And as for the the quality of high-rise buildings, I do believe they are really not good enough to be safe in case of earthquakes like this one, but I heard that many of the deaths were from things like landslides, that occurred outside of the main more urban areas as aftershocks. (which also hindered rescue efforts)

I wonder if the rumors about the frogs "foreseeing" the earthquake and mass migrated were true... =/

As for the one child policy thing, from what I read, it's not that the government is removing the limit, but rather, allowing parents whose children were injured or died in this disaster to apply to be allowed to have another child

source about the one child policy news (It's in Chinese):

http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-05/31/content_8291826.htm[/quote]

viraj

snowynight

probably more than 80 thousand people were killed in this earthquake. i believe we should donate for the survived.... we should care for the living.... one dollar, two dollars... when everyone does so, it will come to a large amount.

kody

Here in Canada there was what seemed like way less news about the China earthquake when compared to the Tsunami in Indonesia. I don't see what the reasons could be for this. There's more death and destruction due to the China quake, and it's a country that's already much more in the spotlight than Indonesia.

Is this due in any part to control of the media by the Chinese government? I tend to think not because it does seem like there's lots of news available on the internet. And the few news stories that do come out of the region hardly seem "sanitized" to any degree.

Is it due to the region around Indonesia that was hit are all tourist areas, so it may have affected more North American investment interests? I hope not!

How has the news coverage been in your countries?

Boffel

kody