00:03:10
ITN
Dams under strain as quake toll rises
Dams under strain as quake toll rises
The death toll from China's deadly earthquake has climbed to nearly 15,000, as officials warn of calamities downstream from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting point.Chinese state media is reporting that 2,000 troops are trying to plug "extremely dangerous" cracks in the Zipingku dam upriver from Dujiangyan in Sichuan province.At the epicentre of the 7.9 magnitude quake in Sichuan, over 25,788 people remain buried under collapsed schools, factories and other buildings with 14,051 still missing according to the country.Survivors left homeless by the disaster spent a second night outdoors as rescuers continue their bid to push further into remote villages in searches certain to dramatically raise the official death toll of 14,866.However, harsh weather hampered emergency teams as fresh horrors continue to unfold and the scale of the rescue and clean-up operation becomes clearer.A Russian transport plane carrying 30 tonnes of relief supplies arrived in Chengdu earlier, the first batch of international aid to reach China.In southwestern Sichuan province, the Chinese government sent in 50,000 troops to dig for victims. Footage from the town of Mianzhu showed the scale of of the damage and devastation with at least 4,800 people believed to buried under rubble there.Officials have warned of dangers from increased strain on local dams as well as mudslides on brittle hillsides where rain has been forecast over the next few days.Two hydropower stations in Maoxian county, where 7,000 residents and tourists remain stranded near the epicentre, were "seriously damaged". Authorities warned that dams could burst.Landslides had blocked the flow of two rivers in northern Qingchuan county, forming a huge lake in a region where 1,000 have already died and 700 are buried, Xinhua said."The rising water could cause the mountains to collapse. We desperately need geological experts to carry out tests and fix a rescue plan," Xinhua quoted Li Hao, the county's Communist Party chief, as saying.The quake had also stopped a river in the stricken Mianzhu region, prompting officials to evacuate residents and drain dams, downstream, the agency said.But, amid the overwhelming gloom, there were also moments of joy with around 500 people pulled out alive from crushed buildings in the town.And in the nearby village of Hanwang, emergency services fed a girl food and water as they struggled to free her from the ruins of a flattened four-storey school building.In Dujiangyan, a woman who is eight months pregnant and her mother, trapped for two days under an apartment building, were freed by firemen and taken to hospital."We are very happy. We have been standing here shouting for two days," said Pan Jianjun, a relative. "But there are still three more people in there making sounds."But elsewhere in the town, a cordon of soldiers blocked anguished parents from a collapsed building at Xindian primary school, where about 200 children and staff are buried.In Wenchuan's Yingxiu township, only 2,300 of its 10,000 residents are accounted for, Xinhua reported. The fate of tens of thousands more in nearby villages is unknown.Four townships in Mianyang, where thousands have already been confirmed dead, are still completely cut off from the outside world. Another 20,000 people remain unaccounted for in Zhongan county, including 120 miners underground, Xinhua said.On the edge of Mianyang city, people roamed around a sports ground filled with about 10,000 homeless, holding cardboard signs with the names of relatives. Most were from the nearby rural county of Beichuan, one of the worst-hit areas.Rescuers who hiked across landslide-blocked roads into the town are reported to have found the Wenchuan county town "much worse than expected". The report said only 2,300 people were believed to have survived."They have said nothing about what's going to happen to us. This is just a temporary place. I don't know when or if we'll be able to go home," said Hu Luobing, from a Beichuan village where she said everything had been destroyed.Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in Sichuan making emotional appeals to urge on workers and visiting crying, orphaned children, later visited Beichuan.Speaking on state television, he said: "Your pain is our pain". Standing amid a cluster of residents, some of whom wiped away tears, he added: "Saving people's lives is the most important task."Beichuan county alone is in urgent need of 50,000 tents, 200,000 blankets and 300,000 coats, as well as drinking water and medicine, Xinhua said.
ITN | May 14, 2008
