CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - China tried to restore calm in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Tuesday after tens of thousands of people rushed into the streets alarmed by a television prediction of another powerful earthquake.
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| An earthquake survivor waits for the news of her relative in the quake-hit township of Hanwang in Mianzhu city, north of Chengdu in Sichuan Province May 19, 2008. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip) |
That, along with fresh aftershocks and forecasts of heavy rain, compounded the difficulties for military, government and private workers trying to ensure food and housing for millions of homeless.
Residents of Chengdu, Sichuan province’s capital, rushed out for open space before midnight on Monday, alarmed by the prediction of another earthquake after May 12’s 7.9 magnitude tremor, which may have killed 50,000 people.
A few hours later, a 5-magnitude aftershock rattled windows in Chengdu and likely caused more landslides on the roads leading to Pingwu, the epicentre of the aftershock, where destroyed roads have hampered relief efforts.
But on Tuesday, provincial television broadcast interviews with a series of seismologic bureau officials to explain the prediction and calm a jangled populace.
“Just because you can feel aftershocks, it doesn’t mean they will hurt you. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should stand in harm’s way,” said Han Weiding, researcher with the local seismological bureau.
Seismologists say that earthquakes are very hard to predict.
The pandemonium showed how nerves have been stretched to breaking point by the earthquake and aftershocks, which have officially killed more than 34,000 people and injured 245,000.
“I think the television coverage is overdoing it. They’re scaring people,” said a hotel worker surnamed Li, who spent the night in a public park.
Postings on China’s FTChinese.com have questioned whether the quake merits the vast media coverage it has received and some have argued that reporters and TV presenters lacked “professional knowledge”, hampering relief work.
Cars jammed roads leading out of Chengdu on Tuesday. There was no report of damage to Pingwu, but Xinhua news agency said on Monday that 200 rescue workers had been buried in landslides since May 12.
DEATH TOLL LIKELY TO RISE
The road to Pingwu from the Sichuan plain was still closed to heavy trucks on Monday, complicating efforts to get food, water and tents to tens of thousands of homeless.
The number of dead from the May 12 quake, the worst to hit China since 1976, is expected to rise dramatically. The Communist Party chief in Sichuan said on Monday nearly 30,000 people were missing and a further 5,000 were believed buried under rubble.
Rescuers had reached the most remote areas of the province by Monday, but roads to some 50 affected towns and villages were still blocked by rocks and mudslides.
Whole towns have been flattened in mountainous areas north and west of Chengdu, and about 4.8 million people are homeless. Housing and feeding during the long-term rebuilding effort will prove a major challenge.
On Monday, sirens wailed and horns honked across China, from tent cities in Sichuan province to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and millions of Chinese stood for three minutes to mourn the dead exactly a week after the quake struck.
All cinemas have closed for three days and “public recreational activities” have been suspended. Foreign entertainment channels have been taken off the air.
A 31-year-old man was pulled out alive from the debris of a hydropower station in Yingxiu on Tuesday after being trapped for 179 hours, Xinhua said.
With a quake survivor lasting two weeks under a collapsed hotel in the northern Philippines in 1990, more could be found in coming days.
But rescuers mostly have the gruesome job of recovering decomposing bodies. Dozens of bodies were pulled from the rubble in the town of Beichuan and rescuers scattered lime and splashed disinfectant to prevent disease.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry appealed to the international community to provide more tents for about 4.8 million people who lost their homes in the quake. And the central bank reiterated calls for banks to set up branches and lend to companies in ruined areas.
So far, 10.8 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) has been received from donors at home and abroad, China said.
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