2008 Sichuan Earthquake
From ChinaTravelGuide
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A 8.0 magnitude quake jolted Wenchuan (汶川) of Sichuan province (zh:2008 四川汶川地震) at 2:28 p.m. Monday, China's State Seismological Bureau (SSB) said. The epicenter of the quake was located 31.0 degrees north latitude and 103.4 degrees east longitude. As many as 80 percent of the buildings in the neighboring county Beichuan County (北川县) have collapsed.
[edit] Update
- 2008-08-30: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Panzhihua City in southwest China on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. As of 9 p.m., 17 people were reported dead and about 100 others injured in Sichuan, and five others dead and 26 other injured in neighboring Yunnan Province. Panzhihua earthquake
- 2008-08-02: A 6.1-magnitude aftershock hit Sichuan province at 4:32 PM on Friday, Aug. 2, 2008, leaving 231 people injured, four critically, China Earthquake Networks Center and local government said.
- The epicenter was located between Pingwu and Beichuan counties. The tremor caused severe landslides in the northern part of the province but no fatalities were reported.
- In Pingwu, 130,000 people were affected, 540 houses destroyed and 2,450 others damaged, Meng Xiancai, deputy head of the county's publicity department, said. Most of the communication facilities were damaged in 25 towns of Pingwu. [1]
- 2008-06-10: The water level in Tangjiashan quake-formed lake in southwest China's Sichuan Province is expected to fall on Tuesday, three days after drainage efforts began. [2]
- 2008-05-30: Mass evacuation underway for fear of 'quake lake' burst. More than 1 million people may need to be evacuated in case a lake created by this month's devastating earthquake bursts through its banks as a result of flooding and strong aftershocks. [3]
[edit] Travel update
China National Tourism Administration issued an emergency notice asking tourists not to visit or pass through the quake-hit areas in the near future for their own safety. [4] Domestic tours to Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong and all other famous tourist resorts in the province, are currently suspended. As of evening of May 14, hotel reservations for the following tour destinations have been affected by the earthquake: Chengdu, Mianyang, Emei Mountain, Guang’an, Dujiangyan, Chuxiong, Hailuogou, Suining, Deyang, Yibin, Guangyuan, Nanchong, Xichang, Panzhihua, Neijiang, Leshan, Ya’an, Jiangyou, Aba Prefecture, Songpan and Meishan.
As of May 14, China has resumed rail traffic between quake-hit Sichuan and other provinces, except on one major line where a tunnel collapsed, setting fire to a freight train carrying gasoline. The tunnel is between Chengdu to Baoji, a major hub in Shaanxi province. Transport between northwest China and central China along the Gansu corridor was not affected. [5]
Also, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport has since reopened on Monday at 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) to limited flights. The airport was temporarily closed Monday after the quake struck the region around 2:30 p.m. Please confirm with the airport at http://www.cdairport.com or phone: 028-8570-2649 or 028-8520-5063 for up-to-date info. But Sichuan Airlines announced that passengers who have already booked air tickets from Beijing to Chengdu could return their tickets or make a ticket change for free from May 14 until May 18. [6]
[edit] Casualties
The death toll from May 12's earthquake has remained at 69,226 as of Monday noon, Aug. 25, 2008 (Beijing Time), while 374,643 people were injured and 17,923 were still listed as missing [7]. No cases of epidemics or emergent public health incidents have been reported in quake areas so far, according China's Ministry of Health.
More than 80 percent of the buildings in the neighboring county Beichuan County (北川县) of Mianyang (绵阳) were destroyed by the quakes.
Wenchuan (汶川) County is located in southwest China's Sichuan (zh:四川) Province with a population of about 112,000.
[edit] Rescue effort
Emergency relief teams, army troops, and various organizations have sent rescuers' to the quake area. [8] However, rescue effort was hampered by the rugged terrain, and rains. Weather forecast predicts that there will be rains and showers in the next several days. [9] (In Chinese).
[edit] Prediction
In 2002, seismology researcher Chen Xuezhong published an article stating that starting 2003 there is a high probability of M≥7 earthquake in Sichuan Province. "Sichuan is virtually certain to experience an earthquake measuring above 7 in the next few years" he wrote. Quake 'predicted' 5 years ago
Many people reported seeing unusual animal behavior before Monday's deadly earthquake. Local media reported on Saturday that hundreds of thousands of toads had appeared on the streets of Manzhu, a city about 60 km southeast of Wenchuan. While some experts have said animals can give advance notice of quakes, others say animals can not possibly sense tremors 20 miles below the earth. "The move is because of the change of weather," Shu Shi, director of the Mianzhu forestry bureau, was quoted as saying by local media. [10]
[edit] Affected Areas
The earthquake was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai. Tremors were also reported in Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Yunnan, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Tibet, the State Seismological Bureau said. Quake relief in full wing.
[edit] Photos
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