You Shook Me! British Earthquake measuring 5.2

[redeyedrichard]

I felt it. It was freakin insane!! There were a few thuds at first so I took my headphones out and then all of a sudden the whole house shook for about 10 seconds. It was the most surreal thing ever. I got up and went to the toilet afterwards and my legs felt like jelly. Crazy stuff.

[eternal light]

It could have been worse.

China says massive quake has killed thousands; 7.9 temblor topples schools, factories, hospital in Sichuan province

MSNBC News Services

updated 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

CHENGDU, China - One of the worst earthquakes in decades struck central China on Monday, killing nearly 9,000 people, trapping about 900 students under the rubble of their school and causing a toxic chemical leak, state media reported.

The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in mid-afternoon, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing, could be felt as far away as Vietnam and in Chengdu crashed telephone networks and hours later left parts of the city of 10 million in darkness.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported 8,533 people died in Sichuan alone and more than 200 others in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing.

Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

A chemical plant collapsed in Shifang city, to the northeast of the quake’s epicenter, burying hundreds of people and sending more than 80 tons of toxic liquid ammonia leaking from the site, state media reported.

The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan and Thailand.

The quake posed a challenge to a government already grappling with discontent over high inflation and a widespread uprising among Tibetans in western China while trying to prepare for the Beijing Olympics this August.

Middle of the school day

Monday’s quake hit 60 miles northwest of Chengdu — a city of 3.75 million — in the middle of the school day, toppling at least eight schools, leaving hundreds of students and teachers trapped, state media said. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

"It was really scary to be on the 26th floor in something like that," said Tom Weller, a 49-year-old American oil and gas consultant staying at the Holiday Inn. "You had to hold on to something like that or you'd fall over. It shook for so long and so violently, you wondered how long the building would be able to stand this."

[eternal light]

updated 4:58 p.m. PT, Mon., May. 12, 2008

CHENGDU, China - A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and a chemical plant Monday in central China, killing nearly 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the worst quake in three decades.

The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan’s provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in midafternoon, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing and could be felt as far away as Vietnam.

Snippets from the state-run Xinhua News Agency and photos posted on the Internet underscored the immense scale of the devastation. In the town of Juyuan, south of the epicenter, a three-story high school collapsed, burying as many as 900 students and killing at least 50, Xinhua said. Photos showed people using cranes, mechanical hoists and their hands to remove slabs of concrete and steel. As many as 2,300 people were still buried under rubble, Xinhua said.

Teenagers struggled to break free from the rubble, “while others were crying out for help,” Xinhua said. Families waited in the rain near the wreckage as rescuers wrote the names of the dead on a blackboard, the news agency reported.

Parents of the dead students built makeshift religious altars at the site, resting the corpses on any available piece of plywood or cardboard, and burning paper money and incense in a traditional honor for their child in the afterlife, according to NPR’s Melissa Block.

In Beichuan county, northeast of the epicenter, 80 percent of the buildings fell, and 10,000 people were injured, Xinhua said. Men younger than 50 were ordered to bring tools to the area to help dig out any survivors. About 600 people died in Shifang city, which was the site of a major chemical leak. The Xinhua report did not say whether people were killed by the quake or the chemical leak.

'We're afraid'

The earthquake hit one of the last homes of the giant panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve and panda breeding center, in Wenchuan county, which remained out of contact, Xinhua said.

In Chengdu, it crashed telephone networks and hours later left parts of the city of 10 million in darkness.

Update

[sweetredwine]

Anybody else "feel" this one coming?

(After)Shock the Monk ey?

"Too much at stake

Ground beneath me shake

And the news is breaking ...

Shock the monkey

Shock the monkey

Shock the monk ey to life. "

updated 4:58 p.m. PT, Mon., May. 12, 2008

CHENGDU, China - A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and a chemical plant Monday in central China, killing nearly 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the worst quake in three decades.

Update