HANWANG, CHINA — At first, Tan Keren tried using his bare hands to tear away at slabs of concrete and giant beams to save the most important person in his life: his wife, business partner and best friend.
Family members tried to help. They called her name, calculated where they should look if she had been watching television at 2:28 p.m. Monday, where she might be if she had fled down the stairs when the earth began to shake.
But the job was too big, the pile of rubble that once was a home too daunting. When the work exhausted him, Tan appealed to overtaxed rescue workers to bring in heavy equipment.
On Tuesday, a crane arrived. But it wasn't strong enough. On Wednesday, it was a backhoe. Same story.
Finally, on Thursday, almost 72 hours after the quake struck, he flagged down a giant power shovel. Operator Tian Heguo began digging into the rubble.
Across shattered Sichuan province, families are fighting thousands of individual battles to find those still missing under collapsed homes, schools and businesses. Officials said Thursday that the death toll from the magnitude 7.9 quake might reach 50,000. At least 28,000 people are listed as missing in the province, and time is running out to save those who might still be trapped.
Tan, 50, hoped that Yao Meiqun, the woman he met 24 years ago in a union arranged by fellow villagers, might be among them.
He had one thing going for him. He lives close enough to a main road to get help. In remote areas, many people still have little but their bare hands to work with.
In the blazing sun Thursday, he watched from the top of a rubble heap as the power shovel hacked and tugged at remnants of his living room.
Relatives talked about a special relationship. From the start, they said, Tan and Yao were well-matched. He was shy, but had integrity. And he had ambitions to start a business.
The two had a son together, and 10 years ago they finally started the business they wanted, buying minerals in bulk and grinding them for sale to companies. But business had been tough despite all their hard work, requiring Tan to frequently be away from home.
Yao raised the boy with the same quiet competence she brought to everything, relatives said. She was an anchor for the family, and it showed in her son, who graduated from law school and is building a career. The young man still shared almost everything about his life with his mother, asked her advice and valued her judgment, they said.
