2008.05.13: May 13, 2008: Headlines: COS - China: Journalism: Hooker: Figures: NY Times: Jake Hooker writes: Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands

Peace Corps Online: Directory: China: Special Report: China RPCV and Journalist Jay Hooker: 2008.05.13: May 13, 2008: Headlines: COS - China: Journalism: Hooker: Figures: NY Times: Jake Hooker writes: Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands

By Admin1 (admin) (70.250.245.178) on Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 3:59 pm: Edit Post

Jake Hooker writes: Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands

Jake Hooker writes: Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands

The quake, which was estimated preliminarily to have had a magnitude of 7.9, ravaged a mountainous region outside Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, just after lunchtime Monday, destroying 80 percent of structures in some of the towns and small cities near its epicenter, Chinese officials said. Its tremors were felt as far away as Vietnam and set off another, smaller quake in the outskirts of Beijing, 900 miles away. Journalist Jake Hooker was a volunteer in the Peace Corps in China starting in 2000 teaching English at a middle school in Wanxian, a small town along the middle reach of the Yangtze River, near the Three Gorges.

Jake Hooker writes: Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands

Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands

By JAKE HOOKER and JIM YARDLEY
Published: May 13, 2008

Caption: Girl pulled from rubble after 40hrs Photo: Flickr Creative Commons

CHENGDU, China — A powerful earthquake struck Western China on Monday, toppling thousands of homes, factories and offices, trapping students in schools, and killing at least 10,000 people, the country’s worst natural disaster in three decades.

The quake, which was estimated preliminarily to have had a magnitude of 7.9, ravaged a mountainous region outside Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, just after lunchtime Monday, destroying 80 percent of structures in some of the towns and small cities near its epicenter, Chinese officials said. Its tremors were felt as far away as Vietnam and set off another, smaller quake in the outskirts of Beijing, 900 miles away.

Landslides, power failures and fallen mobile phone towers left much of the affected area cut off from the outside world and limited information about the damage. But snapshots of concentrated devastation suggested that the death toll that could rise significantly as rescue workers reached the most heavily damaged areas.

In the town of Juyuan, south of the epicenter in the city of Wenchuan, a school collapsed, trapping 900 students in the rubble and setting off a frantic search for survivors that stretched through the night. Two chemical factories in Shifang were destroyed, spilling 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia, officials told Chinese state media.

The destruction of a single steam turbine factory in the city of Mianzhu buried “several thousand” people, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday morning.

The quake was already China’s biggest natural disaster since another earthquake leveled the city of Tangshan in eastern China in 1976, leaving 240,000 people dead and posing a severe challenge to the ruling Communist Party, which initially tried to cover up the catastrophe.

This time, officials quickly mobilized 50,000 soldiers to help with rescue efforts, state media said. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flew to the scene and was shown coordinating disaster response teams from the cabin of his jet.

The prime minister was later shown on national television standing outside the damaged edifice of the Traditional Medicine Hospital in the city of Dujiangyan, shouting encouragement at people trapped in its ruins.

“Hang on a bit longer,” he said. “The troops are rescuing you. As long as there is the slightest hope, we will never relax our efforts.”

The quake was the latest in a series of events that have disrupted China’s planning for the Olympic Games in August, including widespread unrest among the country’s ethnic Tibetan population, which lives in large numbers in the same part of Sichuan Province where the earthquake struck.

The powerful initial quake struck at 2:28 p.m. local time, or 2:28 a.m. Eastern time, near Wenchuan County, according to China’s State Seismological Bureau. Most of the heavy damage appeared to be concentrated in nearby towns, which by Chinese standards are not heavily populated. Chengdu, the largest city in the area, with a population of about 10 million, is about 60 miles away and did not appear to have suffered major damage or heavy casualties.

But officials had yet to describe the impact in Wenchuan itself, which has a population of 112,000 and is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, the largest panda reserve in China. The town of Beichuan, on the way from Chengdu to Wenchuan, suffered several thousand deaths, state media said.

China’s massive Three Gorges Dam, a few hundred miles east of the earthquake’s epicenter, reported no immediate problems.

At dawn on Tuesday morning in Chengdu, clusters of people were huddled outside, many saying they were too fearful of aftershocks to go indoors. Many wore plastic slickers to protect them from a steady drizzle. Wang Zihong, 35, a businessman from Gansu Province, had spent 12 hours outside his hotel, squatting with others on a street corner.

“It was a terrible shock,” he said. “I couldn’t stand up straight. We were on the second floor and we ran outside.”

Chengdu’s Huaxi Hospital, one of the largest in western China, started receiving patients from surrounding counties on Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, 180 patients had arrived from hard-hit surrounding counties.




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: May, 2008; Peace Corps China; Directory of China RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for China RPCVs; Journalism; RPCV Jay Hooker(China); Figures





When this story was posted in July 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Contact PCOLBulletin BoardRegisterSearch PCOLWhat's New?

Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed
Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act Date: October 27 2007 No: 1206 Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act
Senator Chris Dodd vowed to filibuster the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans. "It is time to say: No more. No more trampling on our Constitution. No more excusing those who violate the rule of law. These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta. They are enduring. What they are not is temporary. And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them."

Peace Corps News Peace Corps Library Peace corps History RPCV Directory Sign Up

May 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: May 2 2008 No: 1242 May 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
Condoleezza Rice Visits PC Headquarters 28 Apr
Bush hosts PCVs at White House 29 Apr
George Derrick is Oklahoma's first PCV 27 Apr
Debate is Brewing over Older Volunteers 25 Apr
Peter Spiro Scaled Corporate Ladder at Microsoft 24 Apr
Ukraine PCV terminated after testing HIV positive 22 Apr
Strauss writes: PC never lived up to purpose or principles 22 Apr
Atlantic Publishing needs your help on PC book 21 Apr
Nicole Nakama follows in footsteps of Father as PCV 21 Apr
Jerry LaPre writes: The Children of Sierra Leone 21 Apr
Robert Blackwill quits lobbying firm 19 Apr
An Interview with Christopher R. Hill 18 Apr
Harris Wofford introduces Obama's Speech on Race 18 Apr
Matthews could Challenge Arlen Specter for Senate 16 Apr
Lee Myung-bak invites 1500 RPCVs back to Korea 15 Apr
Peace Corps looks forward to returning to Kenya 11 Apr
Kathleen Stephens Quizzed by Congress 11 Apr
Campbell murder trial ends; Verdict set for June 30 9 Apr
Dodd Calls for New Strategic Partnership in Americas 9 Apr
Jake Hooker wins Pulitzer Prize for "A Toxic Pipeline" 9 Apr
Sirleaf welcomes return of PCVs to Liberia 8 Apr

New: More Stories from March and April 2008

March 31, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: May 1 2008 No: 1238 March 31, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
John Nichols writes: Tom Petri Challenges Abusive Secrecy 15 Mar
Timothy Shriver writes Baseball and 'Sarge' 31 Mar
Barry Kitterman writes "Baker's Boy" 30 Mar
Nathaniel Spiller writes: Friendship Thrives in Senegal 30 Mar
Garamendi Addresses California Democratic Convention 29 Mar
Melinda Palma lunches with Bush in Ghana 28 Mar
Peace Corps Director Tschetter leads by example 28 Mar
Bush presents Service Award to Lydia Humenycky 27 Mar
Suspension of Kenya Program under review 23 Mar
Patricia 'Pan' Godchaux rejoins PC after 40 years 23 Mar
James Rupert writes: Parliament to Rein In Musharraf 23 Mar
Embassies pay for devalued dollar 22 Mar
Sargent Shriver at Fund Raiser for Best Buddies 21 Mar
Terry Thomas strongly opposed to war in Iraq 19 Mar
Tony D’Souza's new book is "The Konkans" 18 Mar
Larry Kaplow writes: US taking notice of ordinary Iraqis 17 Mar
Bruce Cumings says North Korea tough to invade 12 Mar
PCVs Participate in ‘Walk the Nation’ in Swaziland 10 Mar
Theroux says India as hospitable as ever 8 Mar
Tony Hall talks about hunger in Bonita 6 Mar
Hill says relations with North Korea possible 4 Mar

New: More Stories from February and March 2008

What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia? Date: February 10 2008 No: 1227 What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia?
Last summer Peace Corps Inspector General David Kotz cited the lack of cooperation from the US embassy in Bolivia in the search for missing Peace Corps Volunteer Walter Poirier III. Now a member of the US Embassy Staff in Bolivia is accused of asking Peace Corps Volunteers "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country. Could US Ambassador Philip S.Goldberg please explain what is going on at the embassy that he has been running in La Paz since 2006?



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: NY Times

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - China; Journalism; Hooker; Figures

PCOL41582
55


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: