Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SHAKE AND BLOW
China migrants rush home to help quake-hit families
by Staff Writers
Lushan, China (AFP) April 25, 2013


Man, 78, rescued five days after China quake
Beijing (AFP) April 25, 2013 - A 78-year-old man has been rescued five days after an earthquake hit southwestern China, killing 196 and making thousands homeless, state media reported Thursday.

He was found by rescuers "on a hilltop" in Muping township, in Baoxing County, Xinhua said, without giving further details of the rescue operation.

"The man suffered a rib fracture but is in a stable condition," the report said, adding that he was taken to Baoxing People's Hospital by helicopter.

The state news agency said he was the first person to be rescued since the crucial first 72-hours after the earthquake, which the US Geological Survey registered at magnitude 6.6.

Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless after the quake struck Saturday morning, causing widespread devastation in Sichuan province.

Rescue teams have been hampered by blocked roads caused by landslides and traffic congestion in their hunt for survivors.

Moments after the start of his daily grind as a construction worker in northern China, Xia Donghai's world came crashing down with news that a terrifying earthquake had struck his hometown almost a thousand miles away.

With all communications down in Lushan county in the southwestern province of Sichuan, Xia's only way of knowing if his family had survived was to set off on an epic journey that would deliver either relief or tragedy.

"I am filled with terror, I do not know what I will find when I return to the family home," he told AFP, barging his way uninvited into one of the few cars to get through a police road-block on the edge of the disaster zone.

"I have no other way, I must continue my journey," he added, shutting the door defiantly behind him and sitting on the lap of a back-seat passenger, still in his work clothes and safety helmet, and in need of a wash.

"I have tried to call my family hundreds of times but I get no response," said the 48-year-old, frantic with worry in the hours after the disaster struck.

Xia is one of 230 million workers from China's impoverished inland provinces who have left their families behind in search of a better wage in the booming coastal areas.

Towns surrounding the epicentre of Saturday's earthquake -- which the US Geological Survey registered at magnitude 6.6 -- were said by domestic media to be one of the major labour export areas in Sichuan.

A teacher from Longmen townships's Chenyang Hope Primary School told the China Daily that more than half of his 88 students were "left-behind children" -- the offspring of migrant workers, left in the care of relatives.

Endless rows of houses that lay collapsed on the tiny village roads across Lushan were populated by elderly residents and women, looking after frightened children.

Yang Yue, a local official in Longmen, told AFP that there were many local families whose menfolk had left to work in other parts of China.

But he said the elderly, women and children were being supported by local relief agencies, and by the men who were returning in a steady stream following the quake, which has left at least 196 people dead.

"The vast majority of these migrant workers are returning home to help their families," Yang said, though he did not have figures on how many households were without men when the disaster struck.

Two women sitting outside a house in Longmen, tending a flame lit under a stove made from bricks that they had plucked from debris, said their husbands were working away.

"We have no communications, so we don't know if they are returning," one said, as they sat with an elderly woman and two children on wooden stools next to a makeshift tent crafted from wooden poles and canvas.

The last time Xia had visited home was Lunar New Year in February, when he spent the national holidays with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson, who live in the kind of traditional stone house common to the region.

He told AFP that he spent 1,300 yuan ($210) -- a large chunk of his monthly salary of 3,000 yuan -- to pay for a flight from his workplace in Hebei province, 900 miles (1,440 kilometres) away.

Xia said the option of a far cheaper rail journey was out of the question, as he would have been racked with worry throughout the 27 hours it would have taken to arrive in the nearest major city, Chengdu.

Instead he took his first ever flight, and then hitch-hiked with emergency services from the Sichuan capital to Lushan, still clad in the heavy woollen jumper he wears in chilly northern China.

From there he joined thousands of people who had lined the streets attempting to make their way into cars which had been given access into the earthquake zone by authorities.

After climbing into a car, Xia believed he was on the final stretch to see his loved ones, but further road blocks and huge congestion further frustrated his efforts.

In the early hours in the busy centre of Lushan, he pleaded with a group of motorcyclists to take him home, his voice breaking as he tried to make himself heard above the roar of power generators in a town without electricity.

While rescue workers and media were often taken on the back of bikes, it appeared to be more difficult for a poor scaffold worker to complete the last few miles home.

"Stay safe," he said to AFP, as he ran off into the darkness of Lushan's unlit streets, seeking to bargain a ride with little more than the currency of his tragic tale.

The fate of his family remains unknown.

.


Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SHAKE AND BLOW
Thirteen killed, dozens hurt in Afghan quake
Jalalabad, Afghanistan (AFP) April 24, 2013
Thirteen people were killed, dozens injured and scores of mud-brick homes were flattened when a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said. The Red Crescent in the worst-hit province of Nangarhar said 12 people were killed there, while one person was confirmed dead in neighbouring Kunar province. "The number of dead is expected to rise as the search opera ... read more


SHAKE AND BLOW
Characterizing The Lunar Radiation Environment

Russia rekindles Moon exploration program, intends setting up first human outposts there

Pre-existing mineralogy may survive lunar impacts

Lunar cycle determines hunting behaviour of nocturnal gulls

SHAKE AND BLOW
Dutch reality show seeks one-way astronauts for Mars

Accurate pointing by Curiosity

NASA Mars Orbiter Images May Show 1971 Soviet Lander

Opportunity is in position for solar conjunction at 'Cape York' on the rim of Endeavour Crater

SHAKE AND BLOW
Google's Brin keeps spotlight on future technologies

Mysterious water on Jupiter came from comet smash

What makes a good astronaut?

NASA urged to preserve funding for planetary science missions

SHAKE AND BLOW
Yuanwang III, VI depart for space-tracking missions

Shenzhou's Shadow Crew

Shenzhou 10 sent to launch site

China's Next Women Astronauts

SHAKE AND BLOW
ISS Communications Test Bed Checks Out; Experiments Begin

Spacewalkers Deploy Plasma Experiment, Install Navigational Aid

The New and Improved ISS Facilities Brochure

Full tank, please For ATV Einstein

SHAKE AND BLOW
Vega's three-satellite payload is integrated and ready for launch

NASA Seeks Innovative Suborbital Flight Technology Proposals

Stephane Israel named Chairman and CEO of Arianespace

Launch pad problem scrubs launch of Antares rocket for NASA

SHAKE AND BLOW
Mysterious Hot Spots Observed In A Cool Red Supergiant

Orbital Selected By NASA for TESS Astrophysics Satellite

Star-and Planet-Forming Regions May Hold Key to Life's Chirality

Kepler Discovers Its Smallest Habitable Zone Planets

SHAKE AND BLOW
Space debris problem now urgent - scientists

Nothing Bugs These NASA Aeronautical Researchers

US eases export rules on aerospace parts

MEADS Low Frequency Sensor Cues Multifunction Fire Control Radar in Test




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement