((I dont know if this belongs here, but I dont know where else to put it really.. sorry ^^;; ))

So I dont know if this news has reached the US or anything. But on May 12th there was a major earthquake that hit Sichuan in China, measuring 7.8/8 on the Richter scale. So far the death count is about 34,000 dead, and over 200,000 injured. And they still havent found everyone yet. With nowhere to put the bodies, they lie them in the school track grounds and they're quickly running out of space too. The state council ordered there be a three day mourning period too for three minutes. It was really sad.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, on that day during Biology class, we felt a tremor. I knew something was up but I never thought it was this bad. Apparently the tremors were felt through the entire of China and even Thailand (and China itself is really big)

So discuss:
Opinions on this event
Have you ever experienced an earthquake/a major disaster?
Have you heard of this yet? Its pretty big in Asia as far as I know
Other..?

The news of this tragic event has definitely reached the US. My local news station showed footage of a rescue of a pregnant woman from a collapsed building.

yes, i think the whole world knows about it already.
I remember hearing about a teacher saving 4 students with his own life.
Really don't think Us/Canadian teacher will do that.
But it's understandable, in US a Canada everyone's from different countries,
we don't has such bonds....
i wanna move back to China now...

: (


edit:
also the rescue people aka military people, most haven't slept for days because they wanted to rescue all the people.

Originally Posted by ` T O K Y O

also the rescue people aka military people, most haven't slept for days because they wanted to rescue all the people.

wow, new fact I didnt know about. I did hear about the teacher thing. That was nice. They're currently trying to rebuild the buildings and lives of the people. Its amazing how quick the help got there too.

Originally Posted by ` T O K Y O

I remember hearing about a teacher saving 4 students with his own life.
Really don't think Us/Canadian teacher will do that.
But it's understandable, in US a Canada everyone's from different countries,
we don't has such bonds....

I know of a teacher who saved his students in the US. In the Virginia Tech shooting, he stayed behind to try and prevent the shooter from entering the classroom so the students could escape. He sacrificed his life for them. Even if there are no bonds in the beginning, tough situations will bring people together. :yes:

On topic, I really haven't heard much about this. After the footage of a man explaining his last moments with his wife before she was swept away by the water in hurricane Katrina, I've decided to try and stay away from disaster videos that deal directly with the victims. Just thinking that all of those 34,000 people had family that are now in that man's position is horrible. I never really know what to say about things like this. I hope the friends and family members can recover.

I have been trapped in a house from a snow storm a couple of times, but never anything that bad. It was mostly annoying.

Yes I have heard of about it a day or so after it happened. Most I ever experienced of an earthquake being on the east coast of the US is a slight shiver.

I've heard of it, but not that much ;-;
My cousin in China said her friend was crying cause she had relatives there..:(

Oh man, thats awful, but its nice to know that there are still a lot of people in this world that care about others.

I've never experienced any natural disaster, most I ever came to a dangerous situation was one day in summer. The sun was going down and black clouds were rolling in, it got REALLY dark and then thunder was starting, I helped get all the little kids in my apartments home safely then ended up running home myself.

I also remember one day my parents noticed something out in the distance, they told me and my sister to come look, there were purple clouds, I'm not making this up either, purple clouds and lightening, must've been the sun going down that made them purple. It was scary but at the same time I thought it was awesome.

Now, everyone is evacuated from Sichuan because of the flood. It's just... unbearably sad. All the people that died... most of the children died, too. They were all in school at the time, too!

I heard that in one school, out of 1000 people, only 10 survived. That's just too horrible. In China, there is only one child per couple. It means that their parents had put all of their dreams and hopes into this one child... but to see that one child just disappear like that... I feel really horrible. Every time I see footages of parents bent over and crying over their dead children, it feels horrible.

I read that some parents tried to save their children with their own bodies. During the earthquake, one woman with a baby bent over her child and protected it from the falling debris with her own body. She died, but her child survived.

Thinking about these stories, I can't help but admire the love that those parents have for their children.

Indeed Mage, you probably wouldn't see as many families here in America do that for their children, they'd leave their children behind probably. Lets face it, America is awful...

Also on a show in Beijing to raise money for the earthquake one of the survivors were describing the earthquake on the show.

She said when the earthquake started, some of the students and teachers jumped from the buildings ( which was above the first floor ). She was like " After we jumped out, the whole school collapsed, and did you know what we saw?" and the she started crying... " we saw heads, hands, legs and arms coming out from the collapsed school, the body parts of our fellow classmates..."


that was kind of scary...

Oh god, I'd vomit if I saw that happen in real life, thats just horrible. o~o Those poor people. T__T

Yeah, we hear a lot of these stories in school. And theres a whole lot of fund raising going on to help the earthquake victims, not just in my school, but even on the streets and stuff. Whole ton of banners and ads asking for help and stuff..

During one of the moment of silences, we heard a chinese teacher start crying outside in the hall, apparently her entire family was there to celebrate her grandmothers birthday or something and she hasn't heard from any of them yet. A whole ton of students tried to calm her down but she pretty much collapsed on the floor sobbing. D':
I havent seen her in school since. That was on friday, so I suspect shes at home recuperating or something.

We talked about it in science. It's really sad, but at the same time I think it might be nature's way of controlling populations.

I live in NJ, so disasters are rare. We're not near a plate boundary. We're too far north for strong hurricanes to be common. Tornadoes are rare. We rarely get a lot of snow.

This is one of the greatest catastrophes in china for decades, but this time I'm glad the government took control of the situation more efficiently and allowed the media to be more transparent in their reports. A lot of the damage done was preventable in my opinion, because most of the school buildings were fragile and collapsed easily.

In my school we raised approximately $1500 to be sent to the relief aid. My parents are still very shocked and sad, and so are a lot of my friends.

Wow, this is the first I've heard about it... That's really awful, wow. I feel so bad for all those familes...
Fortunately for me I've never experienced a natural disaster of any sort. The closest thing we get where I live is just a tornado warning. I

I'm personally starting a fundraiser in my high school to help the victims. It's a really horrible event and yet... at the same time it has united China in an unprecedented way. It reminds me of the way the US was united in the September 11 attacks.

However, I think the saddest part of this disaster was the fact that schools were in session at the time... and that most of the victims lie under the rubble of collapsed school buildings. It's hard to imagine and entire school simply gone--the community behind it, the people, the friends, and the children who never got to live out their lives.

I reckon the whole world knows about this, there certainly has been a lot of coverage in Australia. Though I haven't heard that many individual cases. Its very tragic.