|
(Continued from page 42)
race. • ___
Powerful quake jolts China's Sichuan, killing 70 and injuring thousands
• BEIJING (AP) -- A powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago, killing at least 70 people and leaving more than 2,000 hurt, prompting worries the death toll will climb. • The quake -- measured by China's seismological bureau at magnitude-7 and the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 -- struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8 a.m. toppling buildings, many of them older brick structures. Tiles fell from roofs and walls collapsed, sending people into the streets in their underwear and wrapped in blankets. • Rescue workers turned a square outside the Lushan's county hospital into a triage center with medical personnel treating the wounded, according to footage on China Central Television. • The emergency response office for the city of Ya'an, which administers Lushan, said the death toll had climbed to 70, including 56 from Lushan, as of 2 p.m., with more than 2,000 injured. • It said in a written statement that nearly all of the structures in Longmen village collapsed and that nearly 10,000 houses were damaged throughout the county. • ___
Residents of Texas town ready to start recovery from plant blast as soon as authorities allow
• WEST, Texas (AP) -- Finally with a firm body count, the Central Texas town torn and bruised by a crater-making fertilizer plant explosion shifted toward recovery. • Residents moved ahead with what they could -- a contractor to rebuild, a funeral home to arrange a service -- but continued to wait for authorities to let them back in their neighborhoods and release the remains of the 14 dead. • Many among West's 2,800 residents felt stuck. Unable to direct their full energies to recovery while the investigation into what caused Wednesday's explosion at West Fertilizer Co. began in earnest, the displaced and mourning made do with what remained in their control. • Bill Killough, 76, paced the lobby of a local hotel Friday, planning how to make the most of whatever time authorities grant him to visit his house 2 ½ blocks from the site.
(Continued on page 44)
|
|