Temblor Report from Sylvia Yu (from CBC News)

[B][COLOR="Blue"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Red"]The Nation Mourns[/COLOR]

May 15, 2008

Along with the rest of the country, I've been gripped by reports of the frantic earthquake rescue efforts. Cranes and rescue workers looking for signs of life. Groans are heard periodically from underneath collapsed buildings.

Time is running out for tens of thousands of survivors trapped under rubble. I'm shocked by the rising death toll which now stands at [COLOR="Red"]24,000[/COLOR] lives lost and counting. I was working from home at 2:28 in the afternoon when the nation's largest quake since 1976 shook the walls in my downtown apartment on the 14th floor. I didn't notice the tremors until a friend who lived in the same building called to ask if I felt the building move. "No, I didn't. It must be the construction site next door," I replied. "I wouldn't worry about it. Beijing isn't an earthquake zone. We're safe."

However, I went on the internet right away and discovered that an earthquake indeed had happened in southern China that impacted not only Beijing and provinces across the country, but also cities in neighbouring countries as far away as Bangkok. The quake's epicentre was in central Sichuan province's Wenchuan county and registered 7.9 on the Richter scale. I knew enough about earthquakes to know that a 7.9 magnitude earthquake could do some serious damage.

A friend who works at the U.S. Embassy later called to tell me that she was evacuated with her colleagues and worked from another office for the rest of the day. I received several text messages asking me if I felt the quake and one friend from South Africa, who was on the 23rd floor of a building at Chaoyang Park's south gate said she thought she was going to die as her building shook violently for two minutes.

Rumours on the internet circulated hours after the quake that two more would hit between 10 p.m. and midnight and that it would affect Beijing again. Who knew that scientists could predict natural disasters with such accuracy? One man identified as "Papadad" on a Beijing Yahoo e-mail group responded to that rumour wryly, "Well let me just call up the man in charge (upstairs) and ask him what time the next (fill in the blank with your choice of natural disaster or calamity) will happen. While I'm at it, I'll ask what time I get to meet my maker....just so I know in advance."
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The day after the quake[/COLOR]

The morning after, I had some more calls and e-mails from friends and family back in Canada asking me if I'm still alive or whether I'm close to the earthquake epicentre.

After its first day of relief work, Operation Blessing, an American NGO in China, stated on its blog that the windows in its Chengdu office in Sichuan province were broken and there were cracks all over the walls. The blogger wrote: "People were all taken aback by the war-zone-like scenes … Many medical workers had not slept for over 24 hours, as more and more people needed treatment being brought into the hospitals. By the time we left the hospital, there was another strong aftershock, suddenly there was another evacuation."

Staff from Operation Blessing visited hospitals in Dujiangyan, one of the worst hit cities now at risk of floods due to a cracked dam nearby. The hospitals in Dujiangyan were filled to capacity and people were forced to go to hospitals in another city. After several aftershocks, people poured into the squares, parks and other open areas, according to the blog: "A square outside Carrefour department store has filled with people in their umbrellas and tents, because their homes had been damaged. A girl (who) works in Carrefour told us that they had a large factory near the epicentre, their employees and employees' families total 100,000 were affected by the earthquake, until then, there were still a lot missing. It's still raining, as time passes by, the chances for the alive only gets less and less."

In Beijing, people were transfixed by media images of the massive tragedy. In Wangfujing, a bustling shopping area, three humongous television screens on buildings blasted earthquake news 24 hours a day. "Last night people were stopped in the streets watching the news in the rain. They looked upset," said Dorothy Wong, a lawyer from Victoria visiting China for the first time. "First of all, I was in shock to hear about the earthquake. My husband and I were at Houhai Lake (a popular tourist area in Beijing) at the time. We later watched the Canadian news reports, and it was upsetting to see the kids in the schools. It's really sad - it's really hard." Red Cross buses rolled into Wangfujing's main streets and people lined up to give blood. One international school in Beijing sent an e-mail memo to worried parents that the school building was unaffected and they were monitoring the earthquake situation closely.

Premier Wen Jiao Bao flew to the earthquake-affected areas hours after the quake occurred. He was seen on television saying, "Your pain is our pain." His visit signalled a pre-emptive strike against any further unrest in an area with a high concentration of Tibetans and where anti-Chinese protests took place not too long before.

[COLOR="Black"]The state responds[/COLOR]

Rescue workers and 50,000 troops were immediately dispatched, aid was dropped by helicopter to remote areas cut off from roads and the country was receptive to foreign aid or supplies. A few natural disasters that took place over the last year have sharpened the government's response to this earthquake. On state media the government has made it clear that the earthquake is top priority and that the Olympic torch relay will proceed as planned, albeit on a smaller scale.

The government's speedy PR response was brilliant. The glacier-like response to the cyclone devastation by Myanmar's junta makes China's disaster relief plan look good. To show the world it's capable enough of handling a disaster - and a world event like the Olympics - the Chinese government had to act with lightning speed.

Without a doubt, the scale of loss is unfathomable. With one swipe, Mother Nature has stolen spouses, children, friends. It has compounded unimaginable loss and sorrow in a single tragedy, a single dumbfounding moment. Now NGOs are working around the clock to help. My friend James Herring who works for a UK-based charity is heading by train to an area hit by the quake. Several families supported by the charity he works for were killed and an orphanage was destroyed. He's going to offer help to the local office there. Another friend, Ben Xu of the government-operated NGO China Children and Teenagers Foundation, e-mailed me today about his plan to set up a 'Wenchuan earthquake orphan charity school.' CCTF set up a similar school after an earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan. "It is very important to have such kind of school to help thousands of children orphaned by the devastating earthquake. The school will help the children stay in a home-like campus and be taught by kind-hearted teachers. This program will be a very practical way to help children in Sichuan."

Several Christians involved in charities have sent out appeals for aid and for prayer, and some have hinted at an apocalyptic reason for two major disasters in China and neighbouring Myanmar, since the Bible talks about increased calamities in the last days.

As the nation mourns and the quake casts a sombre pall over Olympic mania, questions are bubbling to the surface that could haunt the government for years. Why did so many schools collapse? Was it due to shoddy workmanship or were building codes not enforced? The buildings destroyed by the quake were mostly uninsured and reconstruction efforts in affected areas could cost at least $20 billion US according to some estimates. Survivors will need new homes and counselling to help rebuild their lives. The rest of the country will also need some TLC as it deals with one of the worst natural disasters in decades that has also turned out to be an unexpected blight on the Olympic countdown.
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