China Decimated

Post by **mdmf007** » Sat May 17, 2008 9:45 am

China has suffered what I think will turn out to be one of the worst earthquakes in the modern age last week.

If that same earthquake happened in the US, it would have been felt from NY to LA. With friends on the ground there relaying messages back, I cannot believe the level of destruction. Entire villages and towns were razed along with the infrastructure so even news of how bad it really is will take months to fully comprehend.

Myanmar has its own problems, and the aid that was going to go to help them is now being diverted to China - a country that will accept it without condition. So I am sure thet Burma will now suffer even more.

just thinking aloud.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:29 pm

The news has been pretty staggering.
900 dead in one school
The earthquake in 1976 killed 240,000 people.
Grasping the size of china is very difficult from here.
I understand over a million died in the boxer rebellion, yet it barely made news here.
I heard of floods killing over a million one year.
It's very hard to comprehend the scale.

I doubt accurate figures will be known after this one.
Entire towns completely gone.
I live near the fault that has produced the largest recorded quakes in the us.
Reading accounts of the last event, it seems unreal.
The big alaska quake had fissures opening with land rising next to crevasses, real biblical stuff.

I understand that many people that survive being buried die quickly or suffer damage from calcium poisoning from their own bones.

I must applaud china's handling of the news coverage of these events.
They have differentiated between political and other events in the last few years.
And I think it is likely a carefully considered decision for image reasons, after recent coverage.
Still I think it deserves praise.
I hope they realize that all news looks better when it is covered openly, than when it leaks out.