Fear of floods grips China earthquake area
EARTHQUAKE IN CHINA
The search for survivors five days after the 7.9 quake is halted in one valley near the epicenter as authorities warn that water from a choked river might overrun the area.
BEICHUAN, CHINA — The orange-suited emergency workers had just pulled someone out of the rubble alive today when a chilling cry reverberated between the tilting high-rises, the toppled construction cranes and the market littered with bodies: The valley was about to flood.
In a panic, thousands of soldiers, earthquake survivors and aid workers raced headlong for the hills, some helping babies and old people negotiate a mountain of jagged debris. "Move it!" yelled one commander. "Don't worry about your equipment -- just get to higher ground," barked another.
Authorities issued the warning to evacuate Beichuan, fearing that water from a choked river might overrun this obliterated town near the epicenter of Monday's magnitude 7.9 quake. The official New China News Agency reported that a lake created by earthquake landslides "may burst its banks at any time."
"I don't want to die," one survivor cried out, kneeling in terror on a rubble pile, his head repeatedly touching the ground in prayer.
The government in Beijing has been playing down the threat of another disaster as it works overtime to reassure the public. But the warning today underscored how jittery people's nerves still were, given the threat of aftershocks and the risk that flooding in this mountainous area could claim more lives.
The confirmed death toll today rose to 28,881, Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said, with 10,600 still buried in Sichuan province. In other developments, two U.S. Air Force cargo planes were expected to arrive Sunday in Sichuan from Hawaii and Alaska loaded with tents, blankets, food and generators, the first aid flight from the United States.
Hardly a single building has been left untouched in Beichuan, located in a valley with steep mountains on both sides. All the police stations and prisons were destroyed; all six of the city's deputy mayors are missing or dead; and most of its 30,000 residents appear to have been buried or fled.
Ten-story buildings teeter at odd angles, some supported by the debris from buildings that collapsed beside them, while a five-square-block area in the center of town is a massive rubble field that has buried streets and other landmarks.
"I can't recognize any street," said Ma Zizhang, 60, looking for his missing younger brother Ma Ziyuan. "I was born here and have lived here for decades, but none of this makes sense. What's happened is madness."
