China: Survivors pulled from rubble, 50,000 expected to die
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Beichuan, China — Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Friday, May 16, who had been buried for four days as a strong aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week's powerful earthquake.
The first foreign rescue workers since Monday's magnitude 7.9 temblor were allowed to the scene, and helicopters dropped leaflets urging people to "unite together" and providing survival tips. Officials have said the quake's final toll could reach 50,000.
Extras
A day past what experts call the critical three-day window for finding survivors, rescuers pulled a nurse to safety who had been trapped for 96 hours in the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county, Xinhua reported.
A call from the ruins of an apartment building drew a group of volunteers, who spent more than four hours using hands and spades to rescue a middle-aged woman. Brought to the surface, she could not speak and was given to medics.
"She had the will to live," said Xu Tao, one of the volunteers, a demobilized soldier and now an office worker in the eastern city of Tangshan. "I'm just exhausted."
About 10 people were pulled free Friday. Survivors also were being found elsewhere, with a man pulled from the wreckage of a fertilizer plant near Shifang city.
Dr. Irving "Jake" Jacoby of the University of California, San Diego, said the vast majority of people are rescued in the first 24 hours after a disaster, and that the chances of survival drop each day.
If someone is trapped but is relatively uninjured, they could survive for a week or even 10 days, and in extreme circumstances two weeks or more.
"They could live for a week without food but water is needed" to prevent dehydration," Jacoby said.
On Friday, an aftershock rattled parts of central Sichuan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The Dayton Association of Chinese Americans is organizing a humanitarian drive for donations to provide urgent earthquake relief, as is the American Red Cross.
There are two ways to help earthquake victims:
• Write a check to: DACA-2008-China Earthquake Relief Fund and mail to: DACA, PO. Box 29247, Dayton, OH 45429.
• Donate online to the American Red Cross at www.redcross.org.
For more information, contact DACA president Ted Zheng at DACA.dayton@gmail.com or call (937) 266-0114.
