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Philippine ferry sinks; 700-plus passengers missing | Reuters
A Philippine passenger ferry capsized during a typhoon with more than 700 people on board, triggering a frantic search on Sunday for survivors.
Most of the 626 passengers and 121 crew are missing and the vessel's owner, Sulpicio Lines, said it had lost contact with the ferry, which was en route to Cebu from Manila, at around 12.30 p.m. (0430 GMT) on Saturday.
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Full story at link by Manny Mogato// Reuters
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Image by Wikipedia user LordAntagonist
Licensed under GNU Free Documentation License
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GNU_Free_Docu... A Philippine passenger ferry capsized during a typhoon with more than 700 people on board, triggering a frantic search on Sunday for s... more -
A heart-breaking video about the shakiest and deadliest earthquake in the century.
Less than two weeks after the monster earthquakes hit Sichuan, China, the Western media have significantly cut back on, if not forgotten, the disaster coverage. Many have seen the horrific images of dormitory buildings shaking, people running for lives and soldiers digging rubble for signs of life. But this earthquake, along with its thousands of aftershocks, is very very different, and so much more brutal than any earthquake in recent history.
To present the disaster's visual destructiveness and ruthlessness isn't the most difficult job, as there are thousands upon thousands of video clips and images available on English and Chinese portal sites, TV network web pages, among other online entities. But how to get the viewers to understand the full magnitude of the destruction and, more importantly, the extreme challenges for refugee resettlement and reconstruction in less than 10 minutes is no easy task. (Most people nowadays don't have more than 10 minutes online for things they don't care much about any more.)
I set out to tell the earthquake story in a powerful video in a few minutes to the English speaking audience. By picking through over a thousand photos and dozens of video clips found on Chinese web sites, I managed to weave out a narrative of some major highlights with the help of a few Chinese classic tunes in the background. Strong components of this presentation includes:
The opening factoids - babies becoming orphans, parents grieving souls, 7,000 school buildings collapsed and one survey in a school found 90% students lost their friends.
Images of an anchorwoman running away from studio scared of shaking, continuous sound a minute's worth of studio desk trembling, and a clip of a security tape capturing people fleeing the building and sunshade umbrella shaking.
An emotional short conversation of an intact family describing how the father saved the daughter and what the daughter was thinking in the three hours buried under rubble. The daughter was so grateful for her survival that she kept saying "thank you" to her father, and the father kept telling her "don't mention it, stop crying." (This may not be something unusual for most Western viewers, but for those who understand Chinese culture, people often don't express emotions explicitly and saying thanks to parents or children is something rarely heard.)
Contrast photos of communities before and after the quake, photos of landslides, leveled landscapes, successful and failed rescues, satellite imagery, and a climactic string of photos that present a whole variety of difficulties for those who deal with the earthquake destruction, from 4 million Chengdu citizens sleeping on the streets to babies crying for parents.
At the end, I chose to have a moment of silence and, during this moment, open some thoughts about some of the questions journalists and many Chinese raised about shoddy buildings for schools, concerns about safety of many dams in this earthquake prone region, so on and so forth. As these will be some of the very important questions for China to address to rebuild stronger and better houses, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure projects.
This production is the most heart breaking piece I have done. But as a powerful video presentation, I hope it can help my nation and millions of those affected in their reconstructions by getting continued attention from outside China even though people here tend to forget about a most devastating earthquake in this century on the other side of the planet. Less than two weeks after the monster earthquakes hit Sichuan, China, the Western media have significantly cut back on, if not forgott... more -
Big aftershock causes more misery in China
A big aftershock rattled southwest China on Sunday killing at least one person and injuring 400 others, state media reported, nearly a fortnight after a big quake killed tens of thousands in the same area.
More than 70,000 houses toppled during Sunday's tremor in Sichuan province, state television reported. The 5.8 magnitude aftershock was epicentered 40 km (25 miles) west-northwest of Guangyuan, the U.S. Geological Service said.
At the same time hundreds of troops carrying explosives were trekking through the area, attempting to reach a "quake lake" that threatened a secondary disaster.
Concerned by a steep rise in the water level of a giant lake at Tangjiashan, authorities want to blast a hole in the barrier before it bursts and causes a flashflood. Thousands have been evacuated below the lake as a precaution.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who believes the overall death toll from main quake could exceed 80,000, has said the main concerns are now secondary disasters like flooding and landslides, epidemics and providing shelter for the millions of displaced.
State television earlier reported that an 80-year-old partially paralyzed man was the longest known survivor to date. He was pulled alive from the rubble on Friday, 266 hours after the 7.9 magnitude quake hit.
The man was rescued in Mianzhu city, where he had been trapped under a collapsed pillar of his house. He had survived after being fed by his wife, the television report said. A big aftershock rattled southwest China on Sunday killing at least one person and injuring 400 others, state media reported, nearly a... more -
China quake focus shifting from rescue to relief
Heavy rain over southwest China on Wednesday is likely to interrupt relief efforts and raise the risk of reservoir breaches in earthquake-stricken areas, where tents have become the most-wanted item.
Thousands of aftershocks and a forecast of more rain compounded the difficulties for military, government and private workers trying to deliver aid and ensure millions get shelter as the focus of relief work turned inevitably from rescue to relief.
New survivors were still being found in the rubble on Tuesday, eight days after the disaster. One was a 60-year-old woman who Xinhua said had survived on rainwater.
But a Japanese rescue team pulled out of the area on Tuesday after failing to find anyone alive under the ruined buildings and will be replaced by a medical team.
Officials said China needed up to 3 million tents to house an estimated 5 million people left homeless by May 12's 7.9-magnitude quake in Sichuan province.
Vice provincial governor Li Chengyun on Tuesday appealed other parts of China and the outside world to donate tents.
Premier Wen Jiabao ordered the supply of 250,000 temporary housing units -- simple steel structures normally used by construction workers -- to the quake area by June 30 and the number should reach 1 million in three months, state media said.
Many residents of Chengdu, the provincial capital hit by a persistent drizzle on Wednesday, spent the night in tents, fearful of building collapses. Heavy rain over southwest China on Wednesday is likely to interrupt relief efforts and raise the risk of reservoir breaches in earthqu... more -
Rescuers reach all quake-hit SW China villages
Rescuers had reached all the 1,044 quake-hit villages that are under 134 townships in southwestern Sichuan Province by Tuesday evening, according to a military source.
Soldiers and armed police are still trying to rescue survivors from the debris and bring food and water to villages that have been isolated since the earthquake, the source said.
At a meeting on Monday afternoon, Premier Wen Jiabao asked the armed force to reach victims in every quake-hit village within 24 hours.
The rescuers will carry a certain amount of food and water and the army will keep air-dropping necessities to remote villages amid deep mountains, said Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, who was overseeing rescue work at Yinghua township, Shifang city, Sichuan Province.
Medical workers will arrive at villages together, he said.
The armed forces will also set up mobile field kitchens at large-scale temporary shelters to provide hot meals to residents, Guo added. Rescuers had reached all the 1,044 quake-hit villages that are under 134 townships in southwestern Sichuan Province by Tuesday evening... more -
Some Positive News About The Military !
The US Coast Guard rescues a man from a sinking boat off the coast of New Orleans, LA.
The Rescue Swimmer is interviewed about the rescue. The US Coast Guard rescues a man from a sinking boat off the coast of New Orleans, LA. ... more -
Myanmar death toll soars, new reached 133000+
Diplomats witnessed "huge" devastation in the Irrawaddy delta on Saturday and the toll of dead and missing from the cyclone rose above 133,000 people, making it one of the most damaging to hit Asia.
With about 2.5 million people clinging to survival in the delta, and the military government refusing to admit large-scale outside relief, disaster experts say the death toll from Cyclone Nargis which struck on May 2 could rise dramatically.
"It was useful to catch the magnitude of the devastation. It's huge," Bernard Delpuech, head of the European Commission Humanitarian Office in Yangon, said of the trip.
"For the recovery you can't expect it to be six months or a year. It will take longer," he told Reuters from Yangon, the former Rangoon.
Helicopters took some 60 to 70 diplomats split in three groups to different parts of the delta, where Nargis struck with 120 mph (190 kmh) winds and a 12-foot (3.5 meter) wall of water.
The itineraries were arranged by the Myanmar government, under fire for refusing to allow significant numbers of foreign aid workers and major international aid operations. The generals running the country say they have things in hand.
"The purpose was to show the situation was under control. Where we were they didn't hide anything but of course they selected the places we visited," Delpuech said.
In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceeded Nargis in terms of human cost -- a 1970 storm that killed 500,000 people in neighboring Bangladesh, and another that killed 143,000 in 1991, also in Bangladesh. Diplomats witnessed "huge" devastation in the Irrawaddy delta on Saturday and the toll of dead and missing from the cyclone ... more -
Quake effort resumes after panic
Rescue efforts are resuming in Beichuan in China, after the entire city was evacuated amid fears that it could be engulfed by a river bursting its banks.
The city was reduced to ruins by Monday's earthquake, but efforts are still going on to find and dig survivors from the rubble.
But the search was halted on Saturday as rumours of a flood saw a stampede of people fleeing to higher ground.
Beichuan is near the epicentre of the quake believed to have killed 50,000.
On Saturday the number of confirmed deaths rose to 28,881. The Chinese authorities say that about five million people have been made homeless following the 7.9-magnitude quake.
Several people were dug out of the rubble on Saturday, including a 31-year-old woman in Deyang city, and a 33-year-old miner in Shifang, both about 124 hours after being buried.
The region shuddered again as a strong aftershock - measured by the US Geological Survey at 6.0 - struck at 0108 Sunday local time (1508 GMT Saturday).
There have been hundreds of aftershocks since Monday's quake, some causing landslides which have made conditions even more difficult.
Panic
The BBC's Paul Danahar in Beichuan says after the flood alert the city went from a scene of rescue and relief into mayhem.
"Everybody just ran - rescuers, army relief teams, medical workers and locals - and people who were in the process of being rescued had to be left behind," he said. Rescue efforts are resuming in Beichuan in China, after the entire city was evacuated amid fears that it could be engulfed by a river ... more -
New storm deepens misery in cyclone-hit Myanmar
Torrential tropical downpours lashed Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Friday, deepening the misery of an estimated 2.5 million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis and further hampering the military government's aid efforts.
Despite the latest storm, which is likely to turn already damaged roads to mud in the swamp-covered region, the former Burma's ruling generals insist their relief operations are running smoothly.
However, they issued an edict in state-run newspapers on Friday saying legal action would be taken against anybody found hoarding or selling relief supplies, amid rumors of local military units expropriating trucks of food, blankets and water.
If emergency supplies do not get through in much greater quantities, foreign governments and aid groups say starvation and disease are very real threats.
The European Union's top aid official met ministers in Yangon on Thursday and urged them to admit foreign aid workers and essential equipment to prevent the death toll, which the Red Cross says could be as high as 128,000, from going any higher.
The trip, like so many others before it, yielded no results.
"Relations between Myanmar and the international community are difficult," Louis Michel told Reuters. "But that is not my problem. The time is not for political discussion. It's time to deliver aid to save lives." Torrential tropical downpours lashed Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Friday, deepening the misery of an estimated 2.5 million destit... more -
China earthquake: 50,000 may have died
China's government has given warning that 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that has devastated large areas of Sichuan province.
So far, 19,509 people are known to have been killed – an increase of more than 4,000 on Wednesday's estimate of the disaster's human toll - and has directly affected 10 million people.
A Chinese embassy spokesman has reported as many as 4,400 aftershocks since the quake struck on Monday, and China's President Hu Jintao is touring the zones hit hardest by the disaster. China's government has given warning that 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that has devastated large areas of Sichua... more -
China quake toll 'to top 50,000'
More than 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that devastated parts of China on Monday, state media say.
The warning came after the government confirmed the death toll had risen to 19,500, as rescue efforts continue to search for thousands still trapped.
About 10 million people across Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9 quake, state media said.
China is mobilising 30,000 extra troops to Sichuan to help the 50,000 already involved in rescue efforts.
China says it will accept foreign aid and has agreed to help from rescue teams from Japan and its rival Taiwan.
Correspondents say the death toll, which rose from 14,866 on Wednesday, is expected to rise further as rescue workers dig more victims out of collapsed buildings.
People are still being pulled out alive - a three-year-old girl and a pregnant woman were both found alive on Wednesday.
Desperate search
The BBC's James Reynolds, in Hanwang, says rescuers and relatives of those trapped reject suggestions time has run out for finding survivors alive.
At Juyuan Middle School, near Dujiangyan about 50km (32 miles) from the epicentre, 900 children were trapped in the rubble. Parents frantically pull away the debris from the ruins.
"It's not that we don't trust the rescuers," local resident Deng Yuehong told Associated Press Television on Thursday.
"They have done a lot of work to search for survivors but they couldn't search all the places in such a large area here and there may be some places that they ignored.
"We just want to have another try to see if there are any bodies of school children buried here."
The Chinese government has appealed to the public to donate basic equipment to help in the rescue operation. It said hammers, cranes, shovels and rubber boats were urgently needed.
The health ministry says there will also be an increasing demand for medicines and sophisticated medical equipment as the rescue operations continue and survivors are treated for injuries such as bone fractures, crushed internal organs and kidney failure.
More than 10,000 medical workers, police and volunteers have been sent to Beichuan County, one of the hardest-hit areas in Sichuan province, where up to 5,000 are thought to have died.
Appeal
Deputy health minister Gao Qiang says more than 64,040 people have been treated since Monday's earthquake - 12,587 of them are seriously injured, Xinhua reports. More than 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that devastated parts of China on Monday, state media say. ... more -
China quake toll close to 15,000
Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.
More than 25,000 are still trapped in the rubble two days after the 7.9 quake struck, flattening homes, schools and entire villages and cutting roads.
Soldiers have begun to reach the isolated epicentre by helicopter and on foot, bringing much needed supplies.
The government has meanwhile downplayed fears about the stability of a dam.
State media had earlier reported that soldiers were working to plug cracks in the Zipingpu Dam near the hard-hit city of Dujiangyan, which they described as "extremely dangerous".
But late on Wednesday, a manager of the Zipingpu Development Company said there was no risk of collapse, according to Xinhua state news agency.
No damage has been reported to the massive Three Gorges Dam, also in Sichuan province, but there were concerns about dozens of smaller dams closer to the epicentre.
Sichuan's Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said incomplete figures suggested 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746 had been injured, Xinhua reports. Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has re... more -
Chinese Politburo stresses saving lives first in quake relief
Saving lives should be taken as the top priority during the quake relief after nearly 15,000 confirmed dead, a high profile meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee was told Wednesday.
The meeting of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, presided over by President Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, urged more army, armed police, firemen and special policemen, as well as medical personnel be rushed to the quake-hit areas.
The meeting called on various government departments to take measures to provide appropriate accommodations to survivors, ensuring that they are well fed, clad and sheltered.
"Attention should be paid to maintain social stability," the meeting was told.
It presses resumption of transportation, electricity, communication and water supply as soon as possible.
A strong quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in northwest part of Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. on Monday. The death toll tallied 14,463 by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday in Sichuan. Another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 buried in debris, and 64,746 injured.
Tens of thousands of army personnel and armed police have arrived at or are approaching the epicenter to carry out disaster relief work.
As of 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, emergency relief teams sent by the China Seismological Bureau (CSB) and 13 provinces and municipalities had saved 84 survivors in Sichuan.
Disaster relief goods have been airdropped to major quake-hit areas including Wenchuan County and Mianzhu City.
Public donations in both cash and goods to the quake-hit areas had risen to 877 million yuan (125 million U.S. dollars) as of 4 p.m. on Wednesday, updating a previous figure of 603 million yuan, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Saving lives should be taken as the top priority during the quake relief after nearly 15,000 confirmed dead, a high profile meeting of... more -
China: Troops plug dam as death toll soars
China's death toll from a massive earthquake soared by thousands Wednesday as troops rushed to plug "severe cracks" in a dam upriver from one of the hardest hit cities.
About 2,000 troops were sent to work on a dam near the epicenter of Monday's earthquake, state-run media reported.
The Zipingpu dam, upriver from Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, was in "great danger," the Xinhua news agency reported.
China.org said that the 7.9-magnitude earthquake had caused "severe cracks" in the dam.
The "plant and associated buildings have collapsed and some are partly sunk," it said of the hydropower station.
The Ministry of Water Resources said that an irrigation system and Dujiangyan City -- which has a population of about 630,000 -- "would be swamped," if major problems emerged at the dam, China.org said.
Xinhua earlier reported that the death toll had risen to 14,866. An unofficial tally of deaths in individual communities -- as reported by the news agency over several days -- puts the toll at 19,565.
Xinhua also said nearly 26,000 people were still buried under debris and another 14,000 missing. More than 64,000 people sustained injuries.
Rescuers announced a piece of good news Wednesday, hailing the rescue of an eight-months pregnant woman as a "miracle," AP reported.
Zhang Xiaoyan spent 50 hours trapped in debris after an apartment building collapsed in Dujiangyan. China's death toll from a massive earthquake soared by thousands Wednesday as troops rushed to plug "severe cracks" in ... more -
Troops sent to repair quake-hit Chinese dam
Some 2,000 Chinese troops were sent today to repair "extremely dangerous" cracks in a dam upstream of an earthquake-hit city where 500,000 people live.
Officials warned that Dujiangyan "would be swamped" if the Zipingpu reservoir were to breach the hydroelectric dam, five miles upstream of the south-western city.
The state news agency, Xinhua, said 2,000 troops had been sent to help to repair the dam.
Earlier, engineers released water from the reservoir to relieve pressure on the dam, after cracks appeared on its surface.
Speaking to Reuters, He Biao, the deputy Communist party chief of Aba prefecture, said: "If the danger intensified, it could affect some power stations downstream. This is an extremely dangerous situation."
An official from the ministry of water resources warned: "If Zipingpu develops a serious safety problem, it could bring disaster to Dujiangyan."
The city, just north of the provincial capital, Chengdu, was rattled by Monday's earthquake, with buildings collapsing and services cut off.
Dujiangyan claims to have the world's oldest operating irrigation system. The third century dikes and weirs on the Min river suffered only minor damage from the earthquake. But it is feared the system would collapse under the weight of water if the modern dam burst upstream.
The water minister, Chen Lie, urged local officials to evacuate people if further problems emerged.
Yesterday authorities pointed out that the earthquake had not damaged the huge Three Gorges dam, which is still incomplete. The quake registered a magnitude of four in the dam area, which is 600 miles from the epicentre of the quake, where it registered 7.9.
The Three Gorges dam is designed to withstand earthquakes up to seven in magnitude. However, one of the many criticisms made of the dam was that its sheer size could trigger earthquakes.
In 2002 Bill McGuire, the director of London's Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre, said: "There's no question that if you dig a big enough reservoir, you're going to get earthquakes. The Three Gorges dam in China is going to be a big problem."
However, today McGuire said: "Reservoir-related loading effects can trigger the activation of local faults but not those at a significant distance.
"This earthquake is purely tectonic and fits with the expected return period for the region [of 50 to 100 years]." Some 2,000 Chinese troops were sent today to repair "extremely dangerous" cracks in a dam upstream of an earthquake-hit city... more -
Quake Toll Up in China as Soldiers Reach Epicenter
Hundreds of Chinese soldiers marching through mud and debris reached mountain towns at the epicenter of the earthquake on Wednesday, while army helicopters began airdrops of food and medicine in the same area. Officials raised their estimate of the number of people killed to nearly 15,000, with thousands more trapped and missing in remote areas.
The soldiers who reached Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude quake that struck China on Monday, began ferrying survivors across rivers on plastic skiffs. But in the first township that the soldiers reached, Yingxiu, only 2,300 of 10,000 residents could be confirmed alive, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
A poor farming region that is home to a famous panda reserve, Wenchuan is believed to be one of the worst-hit areas.
“There is an urgent need for medical staff, medicine, food and drinking water,” said He Biao, the deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefectural government, which includes Wenchuan.
At the same time, Chinese state media reported that “extremely dangerous” cracks had appeared in a dam upriver from the earthquake-hit city of Dujiangyan, also in Sichuan Province, according to The Associated Press.
Dujiangyan is the site of some of the most horrific scenes in the last few days. A school collapse in a southern suburb killed hundreds of children, perhaps as many as 900. Parents have begun setting up memorials and bodies are still being pulled from the rubble.
The fact that aid was finally able to reach Wenchuan was a minor triumph in the aftermath of the worst earthquake to hit China in more than 30 years. Until Wednesday, Wenchuan had been completely cut off from the outside world, and the longer it remained completely isolated, the more people would suffer and ultimately die. Half of the survivors had severe injuries, Chinese officials said.
But the threat of further earthquakes and aftershocks remained high across the entire region. A small tremor could be felt here in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan Province, around 11 a.m. Wednesday. Hours later, workers in at least one high-rise hotel asked guests to move to lower floors because of a heightened earthquake alert.
More than 800 police officers arrived in Yingxiu soon after the soldiers broke through. Aerial photos taken from a helicopter flying over one town in Wenchuan County showed empty avenues and row after row of deserted buildings, and what appeared to be a large cluster of makeshift tents on a wide soccer pitch. Hundreds of Chinese soldiers marching through mud and debris reached mountain towns at the epicenter of the earthquake on Wednesday, w... more
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Rescue Operations
