<p>"A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 7,600 people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school, state media reported.</p>
<p>The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the 7.8-magnitude quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.</p>
<p>The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand."</p>
<p>My daughter is teaching in China and from posting bits and pieces on this forum, I know that there are other parents out there that also have kids in China. My daughter is safe and sound in Shenzhen, nearly 1,500 miles away. I’d love to hear that everyone else’s kids are also safe.</p>
<p>Wow. No responses?? I don’t post on the Parents forum much, but I thought this event would have several posts by now. It is a very tragic event. I suspect more than 10,000 deaths will be reported. A change is about to come. The earth is trying to warn us.</p>
<p>I was watching some coverage tonight, as well as reading some articles, about the earthquake and it looks terrible. One report said that 80% of buildings in one province have collapsed. It’s frightening to think of that possibility. I’m hoping that that was a premature prediction. The story about the school that collapsed wtih 900 students inside was heartbreaking. A close friend of one of my siblings flew to China yesterday and we are all hoping that she is safe. </p>
<p>With the the terrible storms and tornados here, the cyclone in Myanmar and now this earthquake, it is certainly very scary.</p>
<p>My daughter did not know about the earthquake until I and another friend called/e-mailed to ask her if she was okay! She doesn’t speak Chinese well enough to watch Chinese language news and can’t get the BBC or any other english speaking news stations. Thank goodness for the internet -when they don’t block the news sites.</p>
<p>I’ve heard from two other Mom’s that post here and their boys are fine and out of harms way.</p>
<p>I am one of the moms with whom kathiep has been in touch – thank you, kathiep. I have been away for a few days and not on line for the most part. My DH and I have been touched by the number of phone calls and emails from so many friends and even just acquaintances who are concerned about my son. My son works in Chongqing in Sichuan but flew to Beijing a few hours before the earthquake. He did not feel the aftershock in Beijing. He texted us after the quake and then we called and spoke with him on his cell. He called friends back in Chongqing – it’s about a 4 hour drive from Chengdu – who are fine but then the phone lines went down. I believe he is back in Chongqing now. My heart goes out to those who have suffered losses in Sichuan Province and Myanmar.</p>
<p>An unpreventable tragedy for many families. Maybe 900+ single child families lost their Only. The after affects could be even more dramatic in an examination of building codes, building deficiency, corruption, and their Government leadership efforts to fix future natural disasters and politics. I bet the Chinese Government learned something from Bush’s response to Katrina. </p>
<p>The other part is whether the US will learn something from China. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel besides the municipal first responders have been mobilized. The question is, if a disaster happens in the US (Mt Rainer blows with earthquake, ash-flows, and tsunami) how would the US Government respond? And with what?</p>
<p>As one the moms with a S in China-Shanghai, I’ve been rather amused and touched by the number of people who have called me, wondering if he’s ok. Shanghai is a long distance from Szechuan. He was at a Chinese lesson on the 27th floor of one of the numerous skyscrapers, and didn’t feel a thing. Biking home, he didn’t understand why the streets were so crowded. Buildings had been evacuated, and the streets were filled with people. </p>
<p>It is sobering. My S teaches in a middle school, probably constructed in a similar way to the one that collapsed. As China becomes more prosperous, and hopefully able to afford to think proactively, this is a good wake up call as to the importance of earthquake resistant construction.</p>
<p>I can’t stop thinking about the parents of those poor schoolchildren. It’s really just unimaginable.</p>
<p>With so many people affected there HAVE to be survivors trapped, but obviously it’s overwhelming. Couldn’t there be some sort of coordinated network of search and rescue staff (and dogs) and equipment that could mobilized and flown in?</p>
<p>NPR this AM talked about how the school was known to be poorly constructed, but instead of rebuilding, they added floors. Corruption is rampant in many parts of the world, and some of the corruption is this corner of China is being exposed to world view. Hopefully to good effect. The search, at least in that school, is now over.</p>
<p>GLM and 3boysnjmom, we have also gotten calls from friends just making sure our daughter is okay - and she’s about the same distance from the epicenter as Philadelphia is to Dallas. </p>
<p>I agree that it’s hard to imagine what those poor parents must be going through, and even worse knowing it’s probably their only child that died. 15,000 people was the latest count I’ve read and this is now relegated to a very small side column on page 8 of my local paper. :(</p>
<p>Corruption on the local level in buildings may be more common in China, but it exists everywhere. There have been some recent egregious examples right here in NYC. I do hope though that this will be a wake-up call to people in the building trades in China. There are corners that it is simply not worth cutting.</p>
<p>THinking about the earthquake in Chengdu is overwhelming to me- I expect many of us are at a loss.
NOLA is barely better in some respects,three years after Katrina,
There have been so many natural disasters aided and abetted by mankind, that it is hard to process or know how to help.</p>
<p>I am happy though that they are accepting help although very saddened by all those who are experiencing the trauma first hand.</p>
<p>great lakes mom and kathiep, it is amazing how unknowledgeable we in the USA are about Chinese geography. My DH and I are better informed now since our son went over to China 14 months ago. We’ve been reading and researching all about China, its history, etc. We never even heard of the city where he’s teaching – Chongqing – and it’s one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world with 35 million. Chengdu with a population of
10 million is the capital of Sichuan Province and the closest really big city to the epicenter. Although reports say the Three Gorges Dam is structurally sound, I am a bit concerned since Chongqing is on the Three Gorges reservoir.</p>
<p>Chongquing is Seattles sister city. When my D was in grade school her class had a “field trip” for about three weeks. ( we didn’t go- many of the parents worked it into a consultant/work thing, but even though H worked at Boeing, he didn’t see how he could swing that one.</p>
<p>Of course we are on the Pacific Rim and so have lots of trade with the Asian countries and a long history of Chinese who were brought her to build the railroads, lots of long time Japanese American families too.</p>
<p>I don’t know so much about the actual geography though- it is a big place.</p>
<p>I very much agree. Our daughter is teaching in Shenzhen, a city of between 8 and 12 million people depending on where you read about it. She had her training in Tianjin, another multimillion populated city near Beijing. We had not heard of either city until she decided to work in China. Even after we were there, we had to keep referring to a map to understand logistics as we traveled about the country. Thanks emeraldkity, maybe it’s just our east coastness that makes us more Asian geography impaired! :)</p>