Quake Weakens Numerous Dams

CHEN:
As the death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15,000, officials warned of potential calamities from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting point. There are also fears of chemical and other hazardous goods leaking
into the environment. Lets look at the situation near Zipingpu Dam.

STORY:
Huge cracks have appeared in the Zipingpu Dam, up the river from the earthquake-hit city of Dujiangyan. Yesterday the dam could be seen releasing huge gushes of water as military and medical personnel set up rescue and relief areas nearby.

At the dam, workers could be seen using ropes to check for damages and cracks on the dam walls. Tens of kilometres away from the dam speedboats are busy ferrying medical workers away and receiving injured victims to shore. Medical staff at the site described the situation in the worst-hit quake areas as "very severe."

[Ou Zujun, Nurse]:
"Overall, we have sent three medical teams to Wenchuan. We are here to use this place as a backup medical post. We are here to treat those injured victims that will be evacuated here...According to some accounts from earthquake victims that were evacuated from Yingxiu, the situation is very severe. A lot of buildings there have collapsed and a lot of people were buried in rubble. Our colleagues have started operations and set up a medical point in Yingxiu."

A handful of earthquake victims arrived at the site by walking for more than five hours through cracked roads and trekking up mountainous areas.

[ Lin Fang, Earthquake Victim]:
"The buildings back there have all collapsed. All of us climbed up to the top of the mountain because people say the water levels are rising there. We all ran up to the mountain top and a lot of old people have died and their bodies were just lying there."

[Guo Baizhong, Earthquake Victim]:
"The roads there have all cracked up and the cracks can be seen as deep as three or four meters high. Also, some of the roads have sunk down. We could even see dead people inside their cars on the roads."

The calamity has thrown a shadow over preparations for the Beijing Olympics in August. The quake was the worst to hit China since 1976 when up to 300,000 died.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• ntdtv
• news
• China
• earthQuake
• Dams
• calamities
• Dujiangyan
• Wenchuan
• medical
• hazardous
• goods

[crp17mu7]

Next earthquake will strike north east China or central Asia in four weeks time.I hope they are having school holidays at that time.

[perkele0079]

I'm Australian, but I have to admit, some variations of the Australian accent are extremely irritating, especially if you're been overseas for a long time.

[TECHKLEC]

Check it out on Google maps.

[7009limon]

yea it was a bad one.