Update: Globalwatch.org has a fascinating read on the heroic story of Qinglong County and its wise and cautious officials who saved all 490,000 residents, except for one person who died of a heart attack, by heeding early warnings of the massive July 28, 1976 quake that killed 280,000 people in the Tangshan area. Read the chronology for a detailed account of all the steps taken by officials and residents to watch for signs and prepare for the expected quake. The county head himself led by example and took up residence in an emergency tent two days before the quake. At the bottom of the story is a paragraph about the more recent 1995 earthquake in Yunnan, where only 11 people died after local officials took similar precautions. Obviously, earthquakes cannot be predicted with absolute certainty. It’s a matter of weighing risk against cost of preventive and precautionary measures. Qinglong’s gamble paid off, saving perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives.
While checking out a USGS graphic on the Sichuan earthquake I was linked to Wiki’s entry on the disaster and came across this little tidbit slipped in at the bottom of the brief entry:
On May 9, the official website of Sichuan Provincial Government reported that citizens had been asking the local government to confirm or deny a rumor that an earthquake had been predicted for Barkam County (马尔康县). However, the government claimed that this was not the case and attempted to dispel the rumor.
In fact, Barkam County is very near the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake. Soon after the event, the government removed the rumor from the official website and all other news websites in mainland China. Also, the discussion of this event is forbidden on internet sites originating in mainland China. However, thanks to the cache function of some search engines, people can still read the unedited news of the official websites and its related discussions.
Googling the name of Barkam County, earthquake, and May 9 in Chinese quickly turned up the cached page (in Chinese).
I’ll quickly summarize the deleted post from the Sichuan Provincial Government webpage:
At 8 PM on May 3, the Aba Seismological Center received numerous phone calls from citizens asking about rumors that Barkam County officials had warned their people of an impending earthquake and advised them to take shelter outside. The Aba Seismological Center contacted the Barkam County Seismological Center to confirm the rumor and eventually found out that a local official misheard during a videoconference that there would be a major earthquake. Aba officials then assured the populace that there was no danger.
Chinese netizens are buzzing about this, and the net nanny is busy zapping related posts on major portals, apparently, as the search result pages are viewable only through cache.
18 Comments
I hope there are no more deaths and all the injured recover fully.
Considering the Korean AI and its stupid rage over non-existant CJD,
the Chinese quake and its death toll,
I cannot help but marvel at how advanced Japan really is as a country.
NamDaeMoon would have never burned down…in Japan.
24k people won’t die in a quake this size…in Japan.
AI would never spread like this…in Japan.
Japan still is about two full steps ahead of anyone in East Asia, by a long shot.
PRChinese govt is its typical, lying, sinning self.
R. Elgin did nothing wrong. Truth is the truth.
Not recently, but here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji
A Japanese monument with the stature of Namdaemun, destroyed by arson in 1950.
The 6.8 Hanshin earthquake (around Kobe) in 1995 killed 6434 people. Not as many as have died in China but not as powerful a quake either.
Japan has had its share of serious bird flu outbreaks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi.....308733.stm
Japan’s a great country but it’s got its share of problems too, your list notwithstanding.
R. Elgin was making jokes about an incident that left at least 10,000 dead. That’s not truth, it’s bad taste.
The toxic environment here is nasty. Most folks are OK but too many people here full of hate and schadenfreude against whole other groups. I’ve got better things to do with my time. Bye.
“wjk”, please don’t put words in my mouth. I only observed the absurdity of linking to a CNN report of this event in China and my disappointment as to the POV that too many people in China have, regarding how they treat people based upon their nationalistic bias.
The Chinese have conducted an interesting bit of research in predicting earthquakes by observing animals, which, based upon what I’ve read, may be a good idea.
…and you’re missing the obvious statistic that Japan leads the world in Mad Cow cases… 29 as of September 2006 with the first merely in 2001: http://www.organicconsumers.or.....e_2794.cfm
Yup, Japan is a world leader!
Earthquakes and other such disasters were seen as a sign that the Emperor has lost the Mandate of Heaven. Are the CCP’s days numbered?
“Also, the discussion of this event is forbidden on internet sites originating in mainland China.”
I doubt the Chinese anti-CNN crowd will care.
Unfortunately, it sounds like there’s an awful lot more than 10 000 people dead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05.....l?ref=asia
Underground weapons testing?
Debunking wjk is easy as pie.
So I’m assuming that earthquakes can be predicted up to a certain degree, using seismological tools that we have? Or are there strange natural (that are more external) signs that give us clues? Any geo-scientists here?
Very cool story indeed, but heaps of events like this recently (e.g. Burma cyclone) get me really depressed. Not that I’m connected directly, but @ how we’re so fragile… can be struck anytime, anywhere. Just regretting all the lazy times I’ve wasted.
As far as wjk goes, I wonder if it’s worth responding to a troll… Especially when it’s some Japan romanticizer from the U.S. who uses the Internet for all the wrong purposes.
And life goes on, w/ hostility from nature & people!
Cheers,
Weird commenter.
@9, and you did shit all debunking him.
The horror has only yet begun.
personally i hope the earthquake killed millions. There are too many chinese rats running around.
You are the racist, asshole.
I’ll tell you what I did to debunk wjk: I went to a Mets game last night.
When I arrived, in the 3rd, the score was 2-1 Mets. When I left, in the 7th, it was 10-3 Senators.
Final: 10-4 Senators.
Once again, the Mets snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
stacked should be sent packing for that one. what a loser this guy is.
maybe he was talking about millions of rats.
The rescue supplied by Chinese Army is very effecient and helpful. It is really a serious natural disaster. Once it happens in you country, you would know how sad your feeling would be…
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[...] would think they would agree that politics should not effect disaster relief operations as well. Sonagi over at TMH has a posting up that further shows the PR smokescreen the Chinese government appears more [...]