6.9 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes China, Kills 400
At least 400 people in China were killed today, all due to a powerful 6.9 earthquake that shook the communist nation.
‘A series of strong earthquakes struck a far western Tibetan area of China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, trapping many more, officials said.
The largest quake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey as magnitude 6.9. In the aftermath, panicked people, many bleeding from their wounds, flooded the streets of a Qinghai province township where most of the homes had been flattened.
Paramilitary police used shovels to dig through the rubble in the town, footage on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not available and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the area.
Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks also hindered rescue efforts, said Wu Yong, a local military chief.
Workers were racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster area where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood, according to the China Earthquake Administration.
The Wednesday morning quake was centered on Yushu county, in the southern part of Qinghai, near Tibet, with a population of about 100,000, mostly herders and farmers.
The USGS recorded six temblors in less than three hours, all but one registered 5.0 or higher. The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the largest quake’s magnitude at 7.1.
The main quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled houses made of mud and wood, said Karsum Nyima, the Yushu county television station’s deputy head of news, speaking by phone with broadcaster CCTV.
“In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake,” he said. “In a small park, there is a Buddhist pagoda and the top of the pagoda fell off. … Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members.”
The death toll rose to about 400 by afternoon, according to CCTV. Emergency official Pubucairen, who goes by only one name, was quoted as saying that the number of injured has risen to more than 10,000.
The earthquake comes a little less than two years after a magnitude-7.9 quake in neighboring Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.
That quake flattened several schools, killing thousands of students. Poor design, shoddy construction and the lax enforcement of building codes were found to be rampant.
In Jiegu, a township 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the epicenter that appeared to be one of the worst hit, the local fire brigade was trying to rescue 20 students stuck inside a school, Kang Zifu, head of the rescue team, told state television. They were also working to pull out 40 to 50 people trapped in a toppled four-story building, according to CCTV. It did not say what type of school it was.
More than 85 percent of houses had collapsed in Jiegu, while large cracks have appeared on buildings still standing, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhuohuaxia, a local publicity official, as saying.
“The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic and full of injured people, with many of them bleeding from their injuries,” said Zhuohuaxia, who goes by one name.
The provincial emergency office told Xinhua that 700 soldiers were trying to clear the rubble and rescue buried people and that 1,000 more troops would be dispatched.
A local military official, Shi Huajie, told CCTV rescuers were working with limited equipment.
“The difficulty we face is that we don’t have any excavators. Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to pull them out with human labor,” Shi said. “It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands.”
Five thousand tents and 100,000 thick, cotton coats and heavy blankets were being sent to help survivors cope with strong winds and temperatures of around 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius), the Qinghai provincial government said in a statement.
The epicenter of the first quake was 235 miles (380 kilometers) south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), the USGS said.
Xinhua cited officials at the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying at least 18 aftershocks have been reported and that more temblors exceeding magnitude 6 were likely to occur in the coming days.’
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Author: Abe
If you don't like what you just read here you can just get out of my country. Now how about that smart-alack.
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5:55 pm
Great!
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7:53 pm
If your reaction to the deaths of 400 innocent people is “great!” you don’t deserve to breathe the air of this earth.
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7:57 pm
Stop putting words in my mouth, Claire. I just think it is an eye-opener for China and I pray for each one of them. I pray that they have a swift recovery and those who lived through this tragedy have their eyes opened a little wider to understand the nature of end times and their roll in things. Their salvation was also bought by Christ on Calvary.
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8:48 pm
Ah! So it’s not that they were killed that’s great, it’s that…
um…
Wait, why did you say that any of this was great? It’s a disaster. Four hundred souls lost. Surely this is a bad thing. Right?
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8:48 pm
I didn’t put a single word in your mouth, you racist fuck. You said it in your comment up top. I don’t believe for one second that there were no racist undertones in your comment.
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8:56 pm
It would be hard to know for which one you prayed.
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1:35 am
Hello Adam I am the harbinger of Eris and I have come. Prepare yourself. Goddess Eris does not approve of your serious attitude. Prepare yourself for the Harbinger comes forth.
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8:54 pm
God does not tolerate their nuclear threats against America. With just a little stamp of his foot, behold
‘what he has caused. Glory and this is only the tip of the iceberg!
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9:06 pm
So, God stomped on China because China doesn’t like America?
Tell me, Abe, do you know your bible? Where does God say that he in any way supports America?
Do you presume to know God’s heart?
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6:55 pm
Abe, using your absurd logic then I guess God doesn’t really like America, he didn’t let us defeat the North Koreans or the North Vietnamese. He also killed 250 Marines in Beirut in the 1980′s, I guess that must have been the gay Marine Battalion.
He also allowed over 3000 people to die on 9/11, so using your logic I can only conclude that Jesus is a Faggot that hates Americans.
Abe, let me be very clear about this, you’re not a Christian, you’re not going to heaven and you have absolutely no humanity what-so-ever.
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5:55 am
How can you tell someone about heaven when you refuse to worship Christ?
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9:49 pm
china hate america ??? do you really know the reason why china “hate” america and why everyone else Hate america ? and no it’s not about jealousy see I gave you a Hint nor about your “christian heritage”
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12:19 am
1. China never made nuclear threats against us!
2. If there is a god, I highly dought that he has a favorite country!
3. Adam Nelson, Your a racist ass!
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9:57 pm
Wow. This was actually decent journalism! No finger-pointing or “wrath of god” exclamations! just cold, hard facts! ..The comments are another story, but hey, this is a GREAT start. shame about china though.
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6:48 am
I agree with Daniel. It is a shame that Adam was being a racist ass again though. I suppose it was too much to hope for that he had changed.
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