Sichuan Earthquake + Rant

Yesterday afternoon was such a scary time for my family. It was about 3 in the afternoon when I saw on the net that a 7.9 earthquake had hit a rural county outside Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China. Apparently, the epicentre was not on the edge of a plate but right in the middle, which makes it even more dangerous. Epicentre was also quite close to the surface so quaking was widespread; even places as far as Bangkok and Beijing felt the shocks. So this got out family worried about our relatives in China, who were mostly residing in Xian, in the province adjacent to Sichuan. Especially my grandparents.

Throughout the whole afternoon we were trying to get into contact with them but couldn't. Finally we found them at home and tried to desperately convince them to grab some warm clothes and money and get the hell out of their house. Seriously, China's so called modern buildings are not say very structurally sound. Plus my grandparents are staying on the first floor of a freaking 20 something storey apartment building in the city. It was frightening to think what would happen if the whole structure collapses with them at home. So after a long time, we managed to convince them to go somewhere flatter. But where? We can't have two 70+++ year olds roaming out in the cold streets for a few days to avoid aftershocks. And you can bet that there wasn't any government shelter or assistance available. In the end, after much resistance from their part, we got them to travel a few hours to my Uncle's place where the buildings are lower and it's much safer. Lol, stubborn old people.

From what I heard from my relatives/friends in China, there was little or no warning of an earthquake coming from the government for the people of Sichuan province. How can that be? I'm sure the system didn't detect a seismic shock of such huge proportions. Or maybe the government didn't want to disclose any information to cause so called panic among society. Seriously. If you check the BBC rankings for the world's worst disasters (most casualties), catastrophes in China take up the top 5 spots. And they're still not learning! :< Stupid Chinese government. It's times like this that I'm so glad for some democracy and transparency in the world.

This disaster reminded me so much of the Tangshan earthquake in 1956, and I was afraid for a few moments that it would turn out like that. The Tangshan earthquake was officially reported by the Chinese governement to be 7.9 on the Ritcher scale but many Chinese say that it's definitely a 8.something. According to UN disaster relief centre, if an earthquake hits above the 8.0, said country cannot refuse any international aid which will be dispatched immediately to help. The only reason why it was a 7.9 was because the Communist government did not want any help. Apparently, it told the people that they will depend on themselves and not accept any help whatsoever from foreign parties to get through this disaster to show the strength and independence of the country . Strength and independence my foot. Because the epicentre was right in the middle of a bustling city, every single building/structure collapsed. 移成平地 was the phrase used by rescue workers. Earthquake happened in the middle of the night so majority of the people were buried in the rubble because they could not evacuate in time. Rescue work was hampered by the lack of technology (China blocked itself from the outside world) and pigheadedness so in the end, diseases were rampant in the city as thousands of unevacuated bodies started rotting. It got so bad that the whole city was abandoned, all living people were evacuated and no one was allowed in anymore. It became a ghost city, literally and a 4m wall was built along the perimeter to prevent people from going in and diseases from getting out.

One of the architects on the wall project was a family friend and he was one of the few allowed to go in to build it. Sent back a letter to his wife about his experiences, what he saw and stuff and at the end of the letter left strict instructions for her to burn and destroy it, in case the government gets their hands on it. Until now, she and her husband still refuses to disclose information about the disaster. But they say that the reported 242,000 death toll was false. It was actually closer to 420,000 people dead, most of their bodies unrecovered due to the abandonment of the city. Some sources say that it's actually more like 750,000. Whatever the number, it was a huge tragedy in the face of Chinese modern history. And another reason not to trust the Chinese government in disaster relief efforts. A new Tangshan city was build by the survivors right beside the old one and if you go there today, you can still see the vast gray walls of the old city blocking off the ugliness within. I wonder what it looks like from the air.

So recalling the Tangshan earthquake yesterday got me very panicky about my grandparents in Xian. Thank God they're safe.

It's very sad that most of the news reports now are mostly of schools collapsing and children being trapped. Which makes sense because the quake happened right in the middle of class, hitting structurally unsound school buildings (the chinese government had no apparent reason to build good strong schools). And evacuation efforts are thwarthed by the fact that it was a freaking school with so many people. You can't just run out of the building as quick as for example if you're at home I guess. Death tolls are rising day by day and I hope that the government won't be as stupid as before.