This study analyzes the exposure of energy and transport assets in Asia and the Pacific to climate change and earthquake hazards and highlights how multi-hazard assessment can help strengthen the resilience
Rescuers are racing against time in the search for survivors on Tuesday, a day after a quake struck China's south-western province of Sichuan. The death toll has surpassed 12,000. Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Sichuan on Monday, urged the public to have "composure, confidence and courage' in the face of the catastrophe. Mr. Wen is heading a temporary disaster relief headquarters.
Official Figure Of Dead Stands At 12,000 Saibal Dasgupta & Agencies Beijing: The full scale of Monday's earthquake began to emerge even as rescuers managed to get to the epicentre of the quake and other uncovered areas in southwest Sichuan province. Official sources confirmed 12,000 deaths and said that 29,000 more people were buried in the debris of fallen buildings.
The day after Monday's earthquake saw the spotlight in China turning on relief and rescue operations, even as the extent of the damage wrought by the 7.9 magnitude quake gradually became clearer. More than 12,000 persons were estimated to be dead in Sichuan Province alone and thousands missing or buried.
DUJIANGYAN, China: The children who were considered fortunate escaped with a broken bone or a severed limb. The others, hundreds of them, were carried out to be buried, and their remaining classmates lay crushed beneath the rubble of the schoolhouse. "There's no hope for them," said Lu Zhiqing, 58, as she watched uniformed rescue workers trudge through mud and rain toward the mound of bricks and concrete that had once been a school. "There's no way anyone's still alive in there."
BEIJING: Tens of thousands of people throughout southwest China remained buried beneath rubble Tuesday as rescue workers struggled to reach areas cut off by a powerful earthquake that has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands injured and homeless. The authorities said that more than 18,000 people were still unaccounted for in the city of Mianzhu and that 2,300 were missing in the collapse of a school and two factories in the town of Shifang.
China began airlifting aid Wednesday to the areas worst hit by a massive earthquake, while reporting a huge jump in deaths certain to push the death toll close to 20,000
Japan will give 500 million yen worth of emergency grants and relief aid to quake-hit China, including blankets and tents, and is ready to provide additional assistance such as the dispatch of personnel if necessary, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura announced Tuesday evening. The aid will be distributed directly to the Chinese government as well as through international organizations. Komura said details of the breakdown have yet to be decided, awaiting specific appeals from international agencies such as the Red Cross. The death toll is believed to have passed 12,000.
The fate of the world's most famous panda preserve remained unknown on Tuesday, more than a day after China's worst earthquake in three decades closed off the remote, mountainous area from the rest of the world. The Wolong National Nature Reserve and panda breeding centre is the only place in the world where the rare animals can be seen in such large numbers. But Chinese officials and zoo officials overseas are worried about the centre's 100 or so pandas, whose home is close to the heart of Monday's 7.9 earthquake in central Sichuan province.
US President George W. Bush has spoken by phone with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the powerful earthquake that hit central China. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Tuesday the President expressed his condolences on the thousands of deaths in the quake and offered to assist where possible. She said the US is offering an initial $500,000 in relief in anticipation of an appeal by the International Red Cross. Mr Bush also raised with Mr Hu the turmoil in Tibet and noted the recent meeting in China and Dalai Lama representatives.
More than five years ago, a seismologist had warned of a strong earthquake in China's Sichuan province, where the most devastating quake in more than three decades occurred on Monday killing thousands of people, the state media reported. Seismologist Chen Xuezhong of the Geophysics Institute of State Seismological Bureau (SSB) had made his forecast long ago based on historical records and animal studies, the state-run China Daily said.
