Word: tangshan
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...first shock, the official death toll had risen to almost 15,000 - and was certain to soar. Whatever the final toll, the Wenchuan earthquake, named for the Sichuan county at the epicenter, will likely be China's worst natural disaster since a quake erupted under the northeastern town of Tangshan in 1976, killing an estimated...
...Monday's earthquake, China's deadliest since 1976 when more than 200,000 died in a magnitude 7.5 temblor in the northeast city of Tangshan, has jolted the country into a frenzied race against time and death. Chinese state-run media estimated that there are 25,000 people trapped in collapsed structures in the quake zone, including 18,645 people in Mianyang, a city of more than 5 million. President Hu Jintao called for an all-out response. About 100,000 relief workers, including soldiers, police and medical teams, are working in the affected areas, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said...
Such openness is in stark contrast to the almost obsessive secretiveness that Beijing has displayed in the past when dealing with crises. In 1976, for example, an earthquake at Tangshan, 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Beijing, killed up to half a million. Not only did China refuse foreign offers for help, it banned foreigners from entering the city until seven years after the event. As recently as 2003, authorities in Beijing covered up the full extent of the deadly SARS outbreak for weeks, a decision that critics said delayed efforts to fight the virus and may have increased...
...Most of Tangshan's 1 million inhabitants lay sleeping in the early morning hours of July 28,1976. Without warning, at 3:43 a,m., a massive earthquake ripped through the densely populated industrial center and left it a ruin of crumbled buildings, fallen smokestacks and heaps of rubble. Measuring 7,8 on the Richter scale, the quake leveled an area of 20 sq. mi., causing death and destruction without precedent in recorded history: as many as 750,000 are estimated to have died in the catastrophe...
Departing from their usual silence on such matters, Chinese officials recently disclosed some new details about the Tangshan disaster to a group of visiting American experts. More than 75% of Tangshan's 916 multistory buildings, which were not built to withstand quakes, were flattened or severely damaged by the temblor; only four remained intact. In addition, 300 miles of railroad track were ruined; 231 highway bridges and 40 earth dams were damaged. So many underground pipes were twisted and broken that Tangshan's water supply system was disrupted for several months. Some of the mines were flooded...