China is a very large country and for me to actually feel the tremors from an earthquake located in Sichuan Province I knew it had to be very big and the loss of life and damages would be terrible. But, I never imagined so many people would die, many more with serious injuries and so much destruction. Please continue pray for the people so devestated by the earthquake.
When I view news about China I try to view sources from both inside the country as well as outside of the country to get a more realistic picture of what has happened. The attached story is from the June 4th electronic English edition of "the People's Daily" online news and gives their current statistics concerning the earthquake.
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Earthquake Update: 7/12/08
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 06:00 AM CDT
Sixty- nine days ago life was normal in Sichuan.
Sixty-eight days ago their world turned upside down.
As we have watched this situation unfold, we have been witness to a tremendous, and humbling, outpouring of support from our donors. We have received donations from groups, corporations, individuals, and churches, as well as donations from children who gave their allowance to help the children in China. Each and every donation given for this cause is very important to us, as is each and every donor.
We have been working diligently to use the funds that have been entrusted to us in a way that will honor our donors' intentions. The first thing we did was send a large shipment of formula to Chongqing Civil Affairs for distribution to any baby who needed it. At that time we started working on our long-term relief plan. We have investigated many, many options but have not yet found the right project. Are we being picky? Perhaps, but here is why:
- We want to make sure that any project we begin we are able to follow through to the end. The children we will help deserve that.
- We want to be sure we know where every dollar of every donation is going and that it is making a real and tangible difference. Our donors deserve that.
The Chinese government is doing an amazing job of taking care of the immediate needs of the children impacted. The outpouring of support, both financially and in volunteer hours, that the Chinese people have donated has been amazing. Even the children in our programs throughout China donated the little they had to help. We had been moving forward with plans to help foster children who were newly orphaned due to this tragedy, but we recently got the wonderful news that the vast majority of children impacted were able to be reunited with at least one relative.
The effects of this earthquake will be felt for years to come. Some of the effects have been seen already but others won't be seen for quite some time. Please be patient as we continue to work with those on the ground investigating our options for us. We have wonderful, compassionate people in place working with us, and we are confident that together we will be able to provide true, long-term relief to the children in need.
(This is a Love Without Boundaries blog post. The are a wonderful and large organization helping special needs orphans in China. This is a great group of peoplr providing very real relief and help to a large orphaned population in China.)
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China quake death toll stands at 69,181 with over 1,000 more missing
22 June 2008 …. www. Chinaview .cn
BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the May 12 earthquake which rocked southwestern China's Sichuan Province and neighboring regions stood still at 69,181 as of Sunday noon, the State Council Information Office said.
But the number of the injured rose by 161 to 374,171 and people reported missing increased to 18,522 from Saturday's 17,397, said the office in a statement.
As of Sunday noon, 96,096 injured people were hospitalized and 82,154 have recovered and been charged. There are still 11,306 people remaining in hospitals.
By Sunday, about 1.47 million quake survivors had been rescued and evacuated. Among them, 83,988 were saved from the debris of collapsed buildings in Sichuan Province, the statement said.
Relief supplies continued to pour into the quake zone. As of Sunday noon, about 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 1.31 million tons of fuel oil and 2.8 million tons of coal had been sent.
The statement said as of Saturday, relief workers had built 280,700 temporary houses and another 37,600 were being installed, while the materials for 71,100 of such houses had arrived in the affected areas.
As of Sunday noon, the government disaster relief fund had reached 54.31 billion yuan (7.87 billion U.S. dollars), including 49.6 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.7 billion yuan from the local budget.
In addition, domestic and foreign donations had reached 46.74 billion yuan in cash and goods by Sunday noon, among which 15.65 billion yuan had been forwarded to the quake-hit areas.
In the 24 hours that ended by Sunday noon, 114 aftershocks were monitored in the quake zone and all of them were below 3.9 magnitude, according to the China Earthquake Administration.
A total of 13,538 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.
Of the 8,426 water plants damaged during the earthquake, 6,482 have been repaired by Sunday noon, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
As of Sunday noon, among the 54 counties which had been cut off power supplies in the earthquake, service had basically resumed in 52 counties, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Power supplies were still unavailable in 3 towns in Qingchuan and Songpan counties.
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Rice Visits China's Earthquake Zone,
Praises Recovery EffortsBy Janine Zacharia
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to earthquake-ravaged Sichuan Province in southwest China today to show solidarity with displaced victims.
Rice, who will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi later today in Beijing to discuss North Korean denuclearization, spent two hours in Dujiangyan, a town where roughly 3,000 people died and 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.
While 2,500-year-old dams here survived the quake, 1,000- year-old temples that drew some tourism did not.
As Rice's motorcade sped threw Dujiangyan, residents lined the streets in front of rubble piles that were once their stores and apartment buildings. Blue tents were pitched along the main roadway.
Rice praised the Chinese response after visiting a displaced person camp that today houses 7,000 people and is expected to grow to 25,000.
....It is good to see that people are recovering'' Rice said at the site of a water purification project run by Boone, North Carolina-based Samaritan's Purse, a non-denominational Christian relief organization.
Asked about the contrast between China's response to the earthquake and Myanmar's initial refusal to allow in foreign aid after a deadly cyclone, Rice said the Burmese needed to understand that relief ....is not a matter of politics.''
Corporate Help
Henrietta Fore, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, accompanied by CEOs from U.S. companies including Cisco Systems Inc., will travel to the region in the coming days to see how they can contribute to reconstruction, Rice said.
Rice, who rarely breaks her diplomatic stride on trips abroad for visits beyond official meetings, dressed casually in hiking boots as she walked in rubble and mingled with school children, one of whom, 14-year-old Zhou Yi Fan, said he hoped to be a diplomat like her someday.
Her diplomatic security pushed back a swarm of Chinese photographers when they edged too close. Rice, in the displaced persons camp -- neat rows of white, prefabricated housing -- bought a bottle of water and urged the seller to keep the change and use it to buy books for school children.
The U.S. government has contributed $3.7 million in humanitarian assistance for the Chinese earthquake. The U.S. private sector has contributed $102 million in cash and other contributions, according to USAID.
To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in Dujiangyan, China at jzacharia@bloomberg.net.