Photos from China earthquake

[villager]

Sobering, and many more I'm sure, to come...





http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/n/a/2008/05/12/international/i001230D06.DTL

[Contrary1]

1. I am afraid it will be many thousands more when it's all over...

I was just watching a Chinese news video online. Although I could not understand what was being said, it was referring to tunnels that have collapsed onto commuter trains.

So very sad.

[DCKit]

2. When they announced a 7.8 this morning and friend who knows about earthquakes...

stopped dead in his tracks and just mouthed "oh my God" a couple of times.

It's not going to be a happy ending and, despite my personal feelings for the government of China, the Chinese people do not deserve this.

[Squatch]

3. I'm praying for those folks...but I noticed a stark lack of

rebar. Not much reinforced concrete in those pictures.

[Warpy]

4. Newer buildings undoubtedly had it

because some of the pictures at the BBC show that they fared very well.

This is likely the old construction done during the Maoist years when they were slapping up things to show off to the world as signs of China's modernity without bothering to build them correctly in quake zones.

That certainly seems to be true of the schools, especially and most tragically.

[Squatch]

5. That's probably a very accurate assessment.