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Tuesday
May272008

Latest Update on Eathquake in China

China had two aftershocks over the weekend further damaging the countries infrastructure and causing another 60 injuries, 6 of which are critical and destroyed another 420,000 homes.

The current death toll as of this writing is now above 67,000. Such a large number of dead and injured are children that China is making the unprecedented step of issuing certificates to parents to have a second child if the parents had a child killed or seriously injured in the earthquake.

Many areas are being evacuated either due to large scale flooding from massive amounts of debris blocking rivers in what are being called quake lakes. In some cases large parts of mountains literally fell into the rivers blocking the flow of the water. Currently the numbers being evacuated are around 150,000.

Also in a reversal from earlier reports China is saying that about 69 dams are on the verge of collapse after they down played the damage for the last two weeks. China is home to more dams than any other country and also constitutes about half of the worlds dams.

Fears are also rising about outbreaks of disease since survivors are living in cramped and sometimes unsanitary spaces. Officials say there have been cases of diarrhea, tuberculosis, and hepatitis among survivors, and they are monitoring the cases closely.

Help is badly needed in China, if you can please make a donation to one of the organisations below, to help.

Red Cross
Doctors Without Borders

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Reader Comments (2)

But did you know that four of China’s most cherished World Heritage sites were affected by the catastrophic earthquake that hit on May 12? One very important site is the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, home to 30% of the world’s remaining endangered giant pandas.

Aid teams working in the area need help to be most effective in their efforts to save the pandas and restore access to the sites. Check out the online campaign that Friends of World Heritage, a grassroots initiative created by the United Nations Foundation with Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) and UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, has created to raise awareness and funds to help.

To learn more, visit https://secure.globalproblems-globalsolutions.org/site/Donation2?idb=922467088&df_id=1160&1160.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr006=rxcaaac41f.app5b

May 30, 2008 | Unregistered Commentershawn

Yes I did know, the country has sustained a great deal of damage to many sites.

For those that were not aware of the plight of the Pandas after the earthquake and would like to learn more please follow this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053001793.html

I did not have the time this past week to post more about the earthquake in China as well as other events.

In any case, China and international aid organizations are in need of donations, please find a way to reach out and help there are many good organization out there that you can make a donation to. Perhaps I will make a post on that later this week.

Have a good weekend everyone.

May 31, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKerwood

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