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Terrified survivors flee quake town of death
Yingxiu, China (AFP) May 16, 2008 Death stalks every street of this ruined town and for the traumatised survivors there is just one overwhelming impulse -- to flee the horror as quickly as possible. Everyone wanted out of Yingxiu, the epicentre of China's horror earthquake, even if that meant taking a slippery mountain path that had disappeared completely at many points under heaps of sharp-edged fallen rocks. The long line of people staggering out of the isolated town on the threshold of China's Himalayas and along this dangerous route ended on the shores of the Zipingpu reservoir, where soldiers organised boats toward the city of Dujiangyan. Every time another vessel arrived -- either a powerboat or a flat-bottomed barge -- stampedes threatened to break out as hundreds rushed to get aboard. One man was forcibly removed from a boat to make way for a child. It was hard to find a single person in Yingxiu who had not lost a relative after the town was reduced to rubble in a few terrible seconds. And it was hard to find words to describe the scale of the destruction. "I got here yesterday, and when I saw all of this, I thought to myself, 'The force of nature is just too big,'" said a soldier involved in the desperate hunt for survivors in the rubble. "Man is just too small in comparison." Shortly before he spoke rescuers and shell-shocked civilians froze as the ground trembled, pausing for precious moments as another aftershock shook this pulverised town. Debris tumbled from a damaged building nearby, illustrating the danger that still exists in communities like Yingxiu even as they try to save those buried in the rubble from Monday's huge earthquake. An AFP reporter and photographer were among the first foreign journalists to enter Yingxiu, a remote town locked in by huge mountains of about 10,000 people that was at the epicentre of the 7.9 magnitude quake. Travelling there by car remains impossible, with the only road destroyed by the quake, and it could only be reached by making a boat journey and then a dangerous trek through the mountainside that was ravaged by the quake. "I wasn't home when the quake struck -- but my parents were. They are both dead now," said Liu Jingrong, a shy 12-year-old school girl. She sobbed almost without a sound as she sat in a makeshift tent with her uncle and aunt, who now had an extra mouth to feed even as they were left with nothing, their own home flattened. Just as in other devastated communities of Sichuan province, it is impossible to determine exactly how many people were killed. The horrifying estimates from army officials involved in rescue work Yingxiu vary from 2,700 to over 7,000, with the central government estimating the national toll at over 50,000. An AFP reporter saw the bodies of 16 young children lying in front of the the Yingxiu primary school, where well over half of its 500 students are believed to have died. "Why did you leave your mama? Why did you die?" a grief-stricken mother said as she bent over the corpse of her son of about 10 years old, draping him in clean clothes she had brought from home. Above her, a pair of tiny feet were sticking out of the school's massive collapsed concrete roof. Evidence of the horror in Yingxiu is clear even before entering the town. The ends of passengers cars stick out of the mountainside where drivers were surprised by landslides set loose by the quake. A heavy truck that was swept off the road by falling boulders lies 20 meters down a slope. On Yingxiu's main street, every building is completely destroyed or had facades torn off. A woman and a child wailed loudly while hugging each other in front of a body wrapped in plastic, while soldiers from the People's Liberation Army sifted through mountains of rubble nearby. Military helicopters flew in regularly, landing on a field just outside the town where they unloaded provisions and took the injured on board. Every time a helicopter landed, a long row of stretchers was lined up before it. About 200 Yingxiu residents were on the field, either injured or hoping for a lift out of the destruction. But most were forced to watch as the full helicopters lifted off again. "We've got no tent and it has been raining," said Yang Jun, a 35-year-old farmer, sitting next to his wife whose pelvis had been injured. "There is one umbrella for all of us to share, but is that really enough?" But for most people, the only way out was on foot and boat. Zhang Hong, a 31-year-old engineer at the Yingxiuwan Hydro Power Station, was among those waiting for a boat. Her journey to safety would be a painful one for she carried sad news to her family. "There are 1,000 people working at the power station, and at least 30 died in the quake. One of them was probably my sister," she said. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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China says quake toll likely above 50,000
Yingxiu, China (AFP) May 16, 2008China said Thursday that over 50,000 people had likely died in the devastating earthquake that hit its southwest as time runs out to save survivors buried in the rubble of broken communities. |
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