5 Million Homeless as a Result of Quake

[Stuart G]

Source: BBC

Five million' homeless in quake
President Hu Jintao meets earthquake victims in Beichuan County
Mr Hu called for a "final victory" of relief efforts


Almost five million people have been left homeless by Monday's devastating earthquake in China's south-western Sichuan Province, officials say.

They said the extent of the problem only became clear when communications were restored.

So far, 22,069 deaths have been confirmed and thousands remain missing. It is feared up to 50,000 may be dead.



Premier Wen Jiabao said the quake was the most destructive and widespread since the People's Republic was founded in 1949.

Its scale was greater than that of the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 which left 240,000 dead, he said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7405103.stm

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Hard to believe the devastation that the BBC is reporting..Last sentence here is incredible. Some estimated that quake in 1976, killed 800,000. I wonder if we will get the full picture of this.

[aquart]

1. It's not the scale of the quake, it's where it hits.

A big quake in an empty desert, no biggie. But this...And a chemical spill to make it so much more fun?

We're focusing on human damage right now. In a while, we're going to start asking what factories, aside from the chemical plant, were in that area.

[Wcross]

2. It will be a miracle if only 50,000 were killed.

The last big quake to hit that area in the past killed over 200,000 people and it was smaller in magnitude.

[Virginia Dare]

3. 5 MILLION?

:wow:

[Wcross]

4. China has an estimated 1,321,851,888 people.

Yes, over 1 billion people call China home.

[KamaAina]

6. Sichuan province alone has over 87 million

roughly, California times 3.

So "only" about 6 percent of the entire province is homeless.

To paraphrase the immortal George Jefferson, "There ain't no 'just' in front of 6 percent!" :(

[fascisthunter]

5. Damn... Really Bad

[superconnected]

7. The thousands of parents who lost their only child is what really gets me here.

Those parents are really devestated.

[Regret My New Name]

8. Wow... 5 million.. That's a mind boggling number...

Hard to wrap my mind around how many people that is.

[Stuart G]

9. Yes, I agree, mind boggling,

I am trying to grab a hold of this number too. I live in the Chicago area. That would be 85 percent of everyone Homeless all at once.. ==no place to live, building destroyed everywhere..
.. The Chicago met area has 6 million. What is to be done? How do we help?

I know that we have a crises when the electricity goes off for a day or so. Or in bad times, 3 or 4 days. Depending on the leadership and the will to rebuild, and take care of those in need; this may change the commitment to the Olympics. I surely don't know.

[lunatica]

10. Does anyone trust that the Nuclear facilities are OK?

...the Chinese reported ''light damage'' to older nuclear facilities that were being dismantled before the quake, noting that seismic construction codes were less strict when those sites were built. China did not specify which facilities had damage, he said.

Phones calls to China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and its Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center went unanswered Saturday. A man who answered the phone at the ministry's Nuclear Safety Department said he had no information.

China has a research reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two atomic weapons sites in Sichuan province, where the quake struck, the French agency said. All were 40 to 90 miles from the epicenter.


Nuclear experts said there were several possibilities if any significant damage occurred at the plants, at least one of which is alongside a river. A radioactive leak could cause environmental harm, while internal damage could set back China's nuclear modernization, they said.

Mianyang, an industrial city of 700,000 people that is the headquarters of China's nuclear weapons design industry, was in the disaster area.

A switchboard operator at the site, which has been likened to the U.S. nuclear facility at Los Alamos, N.M., said Saturday that people there were at work.

China's largest plutonium production reactor is also in the quake zone at Guangyuan.

Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said the Guangyuan reactor is ''at the center of China's fissile material production'' and damage ''would disrupt China's warhead maintenance capabilities.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-Earthquake-Nuclear.html?_r=1&oref=slogin