More Earthquake Coverage From China
Earthquake from my hometown
Yesterday I tried to call my parents in the first place after I got the news. At the beginning, I couldn’t put through and after a few tries, I succeeded in hearing my Dad. Fortunately my parents and relatives were safe. My Dad told me they had sensed the trembling for nearly 5 mins and some buildings have been torn rift. My mum and other residents had evacuated from our flat. My hometown was more than 400 kilometers away from the epicenter and I was concerned about the nearer area.
NPR
There were reports that army-led rescue workers had difficulty accessing the disaster area and were hampered by a lack of equipment. But large cranes outfitted with lights operated into the night to lift massive slabs of masonry, said NPR’s Melissa Block, who was at the scene. Ambulances ferried away the survivors.
Dozens of bodies of children were laid out on the ground, waiting for parents to identify them, Block said. Once claimed, the bodies were wrapped in shrouds and brought under plastic tarps. Hundreds of parents waited for hours in the rain for word of their children.
Parents built makeshift shrines and placed the bodies of the dead on pieces of cardboard or plywood as they grieved over the small lifeless forms. Some lighted red candles or burned paper money to send children into the afterlife. Others set off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. The grim ritual played out by dozens and dozens of families as they kept watch over their babies one last time.
Students also were buried under five other toppled schools in Deyang city.
The earthquake struck in the middle of the day, around 2:28 p.m. local time. People flooded into the streets as the ground shook, and many were trapped in collapsed buildings.
One man said he felt the road start to buckle when the earthquake began.
“The road started swaying as I was driving. Rocks fell from the mountains, with dust darkening the sky over the valley,” a driver for Sichuan’s seismological bureau told Xinhua.
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