More quake survivors found as toll nears 30,000

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Reuters

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - Rescue workers have plucked more than 60 more survivors from the rubble following Monday's massive earthquake in southwestern China, as a strong new aftershock hit and the death toll rose to almost 30,000.

The United States Geological Survey reported a tremor of 6.1 magnitude early on Sunday centered 80 km (50 miles) west of Guangyuan, the latest in a series of aftershocks to hit Sichuan province.

The official Xinhua news agency said there was no immediate word of additional damage or casualties in the area.

In the provincial capital, Chengdu, some 200 km south of the new tremor's epicenter, buildings swayed and people rushed out into the streets, risking a soaking from a passing storm.

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"I was expecting to see my son's body. I never expected to see him alive," it quoted Long Jinyu, the mother of one of the survivors found in the rubble, as saying.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWRI74404620080518?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&sp=true

[Wcross]

1. Hope I'm wrong but 200K+ is probably going to be the total.

Smaller quake twenty years ago killed 240k people. I can't help but think the added population density would increase the death toll.

[elocs]

2. The sad fact that those miraculously rescued after days may then die of "crush syndrome".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603738.html?hpid=artslot

For people pinned in the wreckage after catastrophes such as this week's earthquake in China, a successful rescue often marks the beginning, not the end, of the danger.


Crushed and damaged muscle tissue can flood the bloodstream with toxic substances capable of killing within a few hours. If a person avoids that problem, kidney failure caused by the toxins is often fatal in a few weeks.

"Crush syndrome," the collective name for these problems, is second only to trauma from falling debris as the cause of death in earthquakes, but many of those deaths can be prevented if the right treatment is give in time. For the last decade, the international medical community has been trying to make that happen.