by Admin
Earthquake Diary
Eyewitness
Report through the Lens
8 February 2009
This is the most amazing eyewitness account
of a huge event that involves a natural disaster occurred
only once in every 3,000 years, according to many Chinese
scientists, or in every 10,000 years, according to some
overseas researchers. Through his camera lens, the
author, known as 新洋, an ordinary young
man with an extraordinary compassion living in the
province where the earthquake happened, recorded and
reported, and is still recording and reporting to this
very day, the horrific catastrophe and incredible human response. The
following are the images edited from some of his photos
and English translation of the related notes. The
original photos and Chinese text can be viewed in full at
"forum.xinhuanet.com/detail.jsp?id=54276745&pg=1".
13 May 2008
(the nest day of the 5.12 earthquake):
I just flew from Lhasa (拉萨)
to Chengdu (成都, the capital city of
Sichuan Province) today and heard the news of
yesterday's deadly earthquake. Without taking a
break, I jumped into my car and hit the road
towards Mianzhu (棉竹). When I
arrived here, I was told Premier Wen Jiabao had
already inspected the damage in this area and
just left for Beijing 30 minutes ago.
Large scale rescue
operations are yet to take place. At the moment,
dead bodies scatter along the roadsides, and
survivors are searching for loved ones through
the wreckages.
"I fled home,
but my dad has been trapped inside," a girl
cries. "Please help me to find my dad!"
A small rescue
team follows her lead to look for her father.
Relief
centres have been quickly set up, but as refugees
keep coming, several families with up to a double
people have to squeeze into a single tent.
With
communication services no longer available and
police are not in presence, people have to
inquire each tent to locate their surviving
family members and relatives.
14 May 2008 (the third day of the
5.12 earthquake):
It keeps raining. The
survivors urgently need clear water, food and
medicine.
Premier Wen Jiabao has
ordered the army to send these vital items to the
earthquake zoon without any delay.
Private citizens also answer the call of
the Premier and flock to the disaster areas with donated goods.
15 May 2008
(the fourth day of the 5.12 earthquake):
At a village I see a woman
sitting among the wreckage weeping. "I lost
everything in my life; even the trousers I wear
are borrowed form others." But when I intend
to get off my vehicle to help her, she declines
my offer firmly. "Don't worry about me,
please go to Qingping," she urges. "The
entire rural district has been buried under
fallen earth."
On my way to Qingping I
meet another woman who holds my hand crying.
"I was working in the field with my in-laws,
my 6-year old was sleeping at a kindergarten when
earthquake happened, and my child was buried
under wreckage.
In a village near Qingping,
Old Li shows me the wreckage of his neighbour's
house next to his, "Yesterday afternoon I
dug out the bodies of my old neighbour and his
daughter-in-law, and carried them on my back to a
grave and buried them properly." He smiles
wryly. "I'm older than him and we had made
an agreement that one day when I die he would
bury me. I didn't expect that in the end it would
be me to bury him."
Soon I spot some survivors
fleeing from Qingping. They spent days to
negotiate treacherous mountain terrain where the
water in shallow rivers flooded to reach their
neck, and stones kept falling onto their path.
Among the refugees there
are Mr Wang and his wife. "We just bought a
new television set, and marinated dozens of kilos
of pork meat, but we have to give up all of them.
Had we stayed in Qingping, we'll starve to death
for sure," says Old Wang.
2, The Rescue Efforts
3, The Tentative Recovery
4, The Support
5, The Chinese Army
6, The Reflection
7, The Hope
8, The United Efforts
Prev: A Chinese Man's
Struggle (6)
Next: Earthquake Diary
(2)
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