On May 12th/08: A magnitued 7.4 or 7.6 or 7.8 (preliminary numbers at this point, but still big, no matter what) quake hit China last night, in Sichuan province. News reports say that there is no serious damage in the provincial capital of Chengdu.
They are reporting that cellular service has been disrupted. Knowing how communication channels work in China, I’m betting the land phones and internet are probably spotty as well. Which means that if you’ve got a friend or loved one there and you haven’t heard from them and can’t reach them, that is probably why.
The news reports say the quake struck 93 kilometers from Chengdu, which is around 58 miles, so anyone there likely got quite a ride from it.
Other news reports say that the Chengdu airport is closed, and flights are being rerouted to the Chongqing airport.
While there are reports of it being felt pretty strongly as far away as Beijing and Shanghai, so far I’ve only seen reports of damage in the Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality.
**Info on Orphanges and Provinces available on China Adopt Talk website.
As of May 13th, neither the MoCA nor HTS have been able to reach the orphanages in the most affected areas: Mianyang, Zitong, Deyang and Aba. They report that each of those four institutions house about 100 children.
Jenny Bowen at Half the Sky notes that help for children may well be needed outside welfare institutions, and they have been given assurance by the MoCA that they will be able to deliver aid where it is most desperately needed. They intend to help provide temporary and long term care to the children affected, including emergency shelter, food, and medical care for children orphaned or separated from their families.
For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan.
Online donations: Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn
Half the Sky announced that Ford is matching funds that are donated through Global Giving, so if you wish to donate to HTS’s earthquake fund then please use this link to do so:
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2100/proj2086a.html
Half the Sky has set up an Earthquake Fund, if you’d like to help them then go to their website: http://www.halfthesky.org/
2 comments:
It is all so very traggic and very very sad,my heart goes out to all those that have lost so much.
It would be devastating...I sure hope they will get lots of support and help.
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