Quake in remote west China kills 617, buries more By ANITA CHANG (AP) – 45 minutes ago
XINING, China — China poured rescue crews and equipment into a mountainous Tibetan region Thursday in a bid to find survivors more than a day after strong earthquakes killed more than 600 people and injured thousands.
The series of quakes flattened buildings across remote western Yushu county and sent survivors, many bleeding from their wounds, flooding into the streets of Jiegu township. State television showed block after devastated block of toppled mud and wood homes. Local officials said 85 percent of the buildings had been destroyed.
Survivors spent the night outdoors, many gathering on a field used for horse races, as temperatures fell below freezing and aftershocks continued, residents said. With limited medical supplies and doctors, survivors with broken limbs could do no more than wait for help.
"This feels like a war zone. It's a complete mess. At night, people were crying and shouting. Women were crying for their families," said Ren Yu, general manager of Yushu Hotel in Jiegu, who said he felt at least five aftershocks overnight. "Some of the people have broken legs or arms but all they can get now is an injection. They were crying in pain."
Rescue work focused on several collapsed schools, with the state news agency saying at least 56 students died. State media cited the head of the Red Cross chapter in Yushu as saying that 70 percent of the schools collapsed. Worst hit was the Yushu Vocational School, where the official Xinhua News Agency cited a local education official as saying 22 students died, 20 of them girls.
The destruction of schools was an eerie echo of the massive magnitude-7.9 quake that hit neighboring Sichuan province two years ago, leaving nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. Thousands of students among the dead were killed when their schools collapsed. Poor design, shoddy construction and the lax enforcement of building codes were found to be rampant.
However, in affected areas of Qinghai most of the buildings fell, unlike in Sichuan where schools collapsed while buildings around them remained standing, giving the impression that schools were built to lower standards.
Ren said hotel staffers returning from assisting in rescue work at night described horrific casualties the quake had caused: "They told me that when some elementary school students were pulled out, their brains had spilled out."
China Central Television showed parents huddled outside a vocational school at night anxiously watching rescuers as they pulled debris from a huge heap under which about 15 people were believed buried.
A man with a cap and a thick blanket wrapped around his shoulders said he had not heard any news about his 19-year-old daughter since he last saw her Wednesday morning. "She left home at about 7:20 this morning. I guess she took a taxi. If she didn't take a taxi then maybe she would not have been caught up in the earthquake."
Some people had to sleep on the sides of streets with nothing more than blankets, said Tashi Tsering, director of Jinpa, a charity that supports education and health projects in Yushu.
"It's very ghastly. The whole town has come down," Tashi Tsering said. "Most of the houses are made of wood and mud so they have totally collapsed to the ground. I'm sure there are some alive underneath but I don't think there are many of them." Survivors needed emergency medical supplies, water, sanitation, food and clothing, he added.
State media said hundreds had been pulled free alive. CCTV showed rescuers picking through the rubble at night aided by flashlights fixed to their safety helmets. A group of workers found a girl trapped for more than 12 hours under a heap of debris.
"I can't feel my arm," said the girl, who was curled up with her back to the workers. The workers talked to her and fed her water as others searched for pieces of wood to prop up the rubble that had entrapped her. As rescuers gingerly pulled her out and carried her to a stretcher, she could be heard saying: "I'm sorry for the trouble. Thank you, I will never forget this."
CCTV said the death toll had risen to 617 by late morning Thursday, with more than 9,000 injured — including 970 seriously — and around 300 still missing. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said about 15,000 houses had collapsed and 100,000 people need to be relocated.
The airport in Xining, the nearest big city 530 miles (860 kilometers) away, was filled in the predawn hours Thursday with Chinese troops in camouflage, firefighters and rescue teams leading dozens of sniffer dogs. They were whisked onto waiting buses for the difficult drive to the quake zone, which takes 12 hours under the best of conditions.
Yang Xuesong, a rescuer from Shandong province in eastern China, said his biggest concern was the altitude. "This is the highlands. I don't know if the search dogs can get used to it," he said.
Military convoys wound along a two-lane highway leading to the quake zone, nestled amid scrubby hills dotted with Tibetan prayer flags and herds of grazing yak.
While China's military is well-practiced in responding to disasters, the remote location posed logistical difficulties. The area sits at around 13,000 feet (4,000 meters)and is poor. Most people live in Jiegu, known by Tibetans as Gyegu and about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the epicenter, with the remaining — mostly herders — scattered across the broad valleys.
Qinghai provincial authorities appealed to ordinary people to stay away from the disaster zone, hoping to head off a flood of untrained and often ill-prepared volunteers like those who poured into Sichuan two years ago.
"Given that Yushu prefecture is at high-altitude, cold and lacking oxygen, combined with the disaster area's narrow terrain, we call on the majority of volunteers not to gather in the disaster area in order to ensure the smooth progress of the relief effort," said a notice posted on the provincial government's news site.
The government immediately allocated $30 million (200 million yuan) for relief, and mobilized more than 5,000 soldiers, medical workers and other rescuers, joining 700 troops already on the ground.
The initial magnitude-6.9 quake hit Yushu Wednesday morning a little after dawn. Both Wednesday's quake and the one in Sichuan two years ago occurred along the Longmenshan fault, which runs underneath the mountains that divide the Tibetan plateau to the west and the Sichuan plain below.
Messages of sympathy came from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the White House, the pope at the Vatican, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as well as the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader revered by the often fervently Buddhist Tibetans and reviled by Chinese leaders, who accuse him of fomenting separatism.
Associated Press Writer Gillian Wong and researcher Zhao Liang contributed to this report from Beijing.
Striking at 7:49 a.m., local time, the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1, according to the state-run China Earthquake Networks Administration. As of midday, eastern time, at least 400 earthquake victims are believed dead and an additional 10,000 injured, according to Chinese state media.
The strong earthquake today was one of six magnitude 5 or higher quakes to strike along the Longmenshan fault system in Qinghai within three hours, the U.S. Geological Survey .. http://www.usgs.gov/ .. reported—the strongest such showing since 1976.
Volcanic ash hangs over Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano Thursday, three days after the volcano's latest eruption. (See pictures of the Iceland volcano's most recent reawakening.)
Clouds of the volcanic ash, which stretched as far as Britain, caused international travel chaos today as flights were grounded to and from Europe. (Read why ash from the Iceland volcano is so dangerous to planes.)
Airspace in the U.K and several other northern European countries was closed as the volcanic ash—deemed a serious hazard to aircraft engines—drifted westward at heights of between 25,000 and 30,000 feet (about 7,600 to 9,100 meters). (Get more details about the unprecedented shutdown on the NatGeo News Watch blog.)
When the volcano first erupted after a 200-year respite, on March 20, (see pictures of the Iceland volcano's initial eruption ) it spewed mainly fire and lava. But the latest eruption spurted out a cloud of steam, smoke, and ash up to 7 miles (11 kilometers) high.
James Owen .. Published April 15, 2010 .. see inside for more on each photo below ..
Kalgoorlie, or often referred to as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is 600 km ( 370 miles ) east of Perth on the Eastern Highway and is a quintessential Australian Gold rush town.
One of the largest centres in Western Australia, the city's past present and future still revolves around gold and more increasingly tourism and there is a good variety of hotels and accommodation to satisfy this demand. http://www.auinfo.com/Kalgoorlie-Western-Australia.html
Melbourne hit by tremor MEX COOPER, PAUL MILLAR March 18, 2009
More quakes could follow: expert .. Seismologist Gary Gibson speaks to 3AW radio's Derryn Hinch. .. inside ..
A second 4.6 earthquake has hit Korumburra, shaking buildings and homes across Melbourne and leaving scientists at a loss to explain why the town has been struck twice in two weeks.
Today's quake struck at 4.28pm, five kilometres north-west of Korumburra, 90 kilometres south-east of Melbourne and at the same spot where a 4.6 magnitude quake occurred on March 6.
Geoscience Australia seismologist Spiro Spiliopoulos said science could not predict if another quake would jolt the town nestled in the hills of the Strzelecki Ranges.
Dr Spiliopoulos said the epicentre was estimated to be about 10 kilometres underground and the quake was caused by stresses in the Australian tectonic plate.
"The stresses are due to the Australian plate moving northward ... but being able to say why earthquakes occur on this particular spot, our science is not good enough yet to say why,'' he said.
"All we know is we have an active fault there and quakes are occurring.''
Dr Spiliopoulos said it was unusual but not unheard of for a quake to hit the same place twice within such a short time.
The quake was felt up to 200 kilometres away from Korumburra but there were no immediate of reports of damage.
People reported feeling today's quake in the CBD, Box Hill, Footscray, Heathmont, Warrandyte, Glen Waverley, Emerald, Port Melbourne, St Kilda, Warragul and Phillip Island.
Rachel Waycott was working in the Austral Hotel in Korumburra when the town was rocked again.
She said about 15 patrons in the pub looked at each other and expected the worst as the two-storey building began to move.
"It was as bad as the last one,'' she said. ``I was sitting in the bar and serving and the whole pub shook. I was ready to run out as you hear things about whether the next one could be a big one.''
Ms Waycott said the earthquake on March 6 had been the talk of Korumburra and locals feared it was leading to a second larger quake.
"I have felt aftershocks over the last couple of weeks ... some people haven't felt them but one was in the middle of the night and was strong enough to shake my whole house and wake me up.''
Four aftershocks of magnitude 3 or above have been recorded in Korumburra since March 6 and Dr Spiliopoulos said there would have been hundreds more not strong enough to have been felt.
Ms Waycott said this afternoon's quake lasted up to 10 seconds and was followed by a 10-minute blackout in the town.
"It was like a rumble as if a truck or something had hit the pub and you could see the building shaking,'' she said.
Grahame Brown, owner manager of the Korumburra Tourist Park, was in the shower when the quake rolled through his property on the outskirts of town.
"It felt like an explosion in the quarry, the whole house shook back and forwards a few times,'' Mr Brown said.
"You could feel the whole house moving and then the power went off for five to 10 minutes, but we've had four or five of these since January, so I suppose we're getting used to it by now.''
He said there was no damage other than photographs on the walls moving to a tilt.
Teacher Ross Besley had been at a meeting at the local primary school in the town's centre.
"The whole room started to shake, and it gave us a shake, the whole street was talking about it,'' he said.
Dr Craig Gedye was at the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg when he felt the room shaking.
"I felt five seconds of light shaking and then one long thump about 4.30pm,'' he said.
He said he heard wood creaking but did not believe the tremor was strong enough to have caused damage.
"It's just another little tremor like we felt the other week,'' he said.
Narre Warren resident Ginnie Giles said her entire house shook about 4.30pm.
"It was the same as the other night when it happened,'' she said.
"It was for maybe three or four seconds but it felt longer than that. Our cat was lying down and he looked around as if to say 'what was that?'.''
Charles Envall, of Korumburra, was having a relaxing afternoon reading when the tremor hit and the power went off temporarily.
"A loud, rumbling noise went for about two or three seconds, it didn't seem to be as much vibration as the last one which shook the armchairs around a bit,'' Mr Envall said.
Anderson's Creek Primary School teacher Leah Canale was in a portable classroom in Warrandyte when the tremor struck.
"I was sitting in my classroom and all of a sudden the filing cabinet and desk started shaking, windows started shaking,'' she said.
"I thought 'Am I going crazy or is that another earthquake?'''
Ms Canale said she was thankful her grade 5 students had already left for the day as they would have "gone crazy''.
"I live in Kew and during the last one I was sitting on the couch and fell off. This time I was standing upright but it felt about equally as strong,'' she said.
The two Korumburra quakes are the largest recorded in Melbourne since 1973.
State Emergency Service spokesman Alan Briggs said while there had been no reports of any damage, anyone facing any problems should turn off all gas, electricity and water and call emergency services.
Dr Spiliopoulos said Geoscience Australia would continue to monitor any aftershocks in Korumburra and if a quake struck people should seek shelter either outdoors or under the most solid part of a building.
"The thing that kills during earthquakes is things falling on top of people or building collapsing. The best thing to do is stay away from eaves, if you are out in the open you are safe, if you are in a building, get under a door jam or under a table,'' he said. http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-hit-by-tremor-20090318-91w6.html
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