7.9 quake in China

You act like this is a bad thing

great thread already

By 11.40 p.m. local time, the state news agency Xinhua quoted local authorities as saying that the number of dead had risen to 8,533 in Sichuan Province alone. Provincial disaster relief officials said that 3,000 to 5,000 people were feared dead in Beichuan County where roughly 80 percent of the buildings were reportedly destroyed.

Apparently there's also two chemical plants that have collapsed, with something like 80 tons of ammonia released or some such.

Kind of waiting from the "Told you so" from Russia?

Have to say I was surprised at no thread. but then, we don't have much to say about it other than "how fucking awful"

jesus, this is terrible.

Heard on the radio on the way in today that in some town of about 150,000, 80% of the buildings collapsed.

for reference

“I suddenly felt very dizzy, as if I were heavily drunk,” said Zeng Hui, who works on the 22nd floor of an office tower in Beijing. “I thought I was seriously ill, then I looked around and saw my colleagues felt the same way. We were stunned.”

Next time heave asks what being drunk feels like, here you are.

I've been academically aware of how much and how quickly China is booming economically, but the pictures from this really make it stand out. Is a wealthy looking place, Chengdu.

From here:
250 29.93N, 99.58E SICHUAN, CHINA 307
Off by a couple of degrees in either direction? though the 307 is nowhere near the highest weighted prediction on the list

for reference

-- gabbneb, Monday, May 12, 2008 7:15 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

how do you mean?

we didn't care about that either

"Have to say I was surprised at no thread"

if Burma's cyclone (almost) didnt get any attention, theres no surprise.
(sadly, it's a function of geographic distance/importance vs. interest i guess)

what i was saying
xpost

what's worse, not contributing to a thread about horrible disaster or getting all fuckin' self-righteous about how many messages were posted to various threads about horrible disasters?

that was obv a rhetorical question but what a weird and passive-aggressive way to think about shit. that's really the first thing that comes to mind?

you tell us, mr reading comprehension. i'm just answering tom's question.

The resident earthquake expert on another site says that this earthquake caused the fault to move in such a way that it's now acting like a fully drawn bow, with the potential to release 10 times the amount of energy released in today's quake.
somehow he was able to say that from this: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/us2008ryan/finite_fault.php

"getting all fuckin' self-righteous about how many messages were posted to various threads about horrible disasters?"

naaa, just saying the facts. no right or wrong.

it's logical that if something like that happend in the U.S. (Katrina), the thread had 1000 post in no time.

it's now acting like a fully drawn bow
terrifying.

it's logical that if something like that happend in the U.S. (Katrina), the thread had 1000 post in no time.

-- Zeno, Monday, May 12, 2008 7:47 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

SFW

It's sad that this is the first time I realized what that acronym meant.

so it's not a self-righteous thing, just human tendency thats all

hey guys, three gorges dam.

oh good

"Wenchuan is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base for endangered giant pandas"

;_;

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/105_35.php

^^ look @ the fault line!

Sichuan University student takes video at 2:29pm in dorm.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mBoCik8RKpc

rubble replaced with pizza huts and apartment blocks within 72 hours. beijing 2008. 中国加油！！！！！

Heya Dylannn -- remind me, are you still over there?

in canada. i'll be there from jun 1 to prob august (not chengdu)

http://cimg20.163.com/cnews/2008/5/9/20080509161306620cb.jpg

toads emerge to protest carrefour

wow toads

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee251/gcccccccc/capt851d17e75afe4459a446415c1ce2cb6.jpg

wen jiabao bellows slogans to inspire people trapped under tons of concrete.

Earthquakes and toads... its all a bit apocalyptic yo :( this is terrible.

my friend is supposed to move to beijing this summer. i hope nothing has gone awry with her plans...

and AGAIN

Link?

Link?

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php

MAP 5.0 2008/05/16 20:16:52 31.265 103.709 10.0 EASTERN SICHUAN, CHINA
MAP 5.6 2008/05/16 05:25:48 31.355 103.376 10.0 EASTERN SICHUAN, CHINA
MAP 5.1 2008/05/16 03:34:27 31.393 104.048 10.0 EASTERN SICHUAN, CHINA

Some nasty aftershock activity going on

jeez

seriously nasty. Hu Jintao was on the ground for this one, wau wau

well I mean he was probably on the ground for the 7.9 too but not, you know, in the same county

32 aftershocks of > 5.0 mag so far. (including one mag 6)

http://i30.tinypic.com/2zhei41.gif

My wife was in Shanghai up until Wednesday.

Needless to say, I was on pins and fucking needles until she was home.

Sad, sad news, every day about this.

This NPR story is one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever heard

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90447603

The one picture that got me silent for the rest of the day was (in some British paper) that one man whose wife had died and he had to tie her body to his back and ride his bike to the morgue like that because there was nobody to help.

( link - not only because it's so terrible, but also because someone took a picture and some editor decided it should be published)

I was in Chengdu from Monday till yesterday; I'll be back in a couple days. One thing I can tell you is that people there don't trust the government a bit when it tells them that buildings, water supplies etc are safe. I've got a bunch of pics of prosperous city folk camping out in the soccer stadium because they're afraid to go back to their apartments.

Also, my friend was nearly slashed by a teenage knife-wielding maniac last night, but I think that was a coincidence.

WTF
http://www.godhatesfags.com/written/fliers/20080513_china-earthquake.pdf

http://badcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/thank-god-for-earthquake.jpg

wow, lukas.
glad you're ok.

StanM, please never link to that site again.

Echoing Tombot -- glad to hear you're okay, Lukas.

ok, sorry - (I was going to insert spaces into the link so it wasn't live, but I messed up)

Thanks guys. I have barely been affected though - and Chengdu wasn't really that hard hit. People in the surrounding villages are suffering a lot more.