Chengdu Earthquake, an Inside Look

I received another email from my friend in China, offering a chilling insight into the devestating earthquake which has just taken place in Chengdu, China.

"...form the day before yesterday to today we nearly sleept a couple of hours , because our dorm was damaged a little and we fear others dangerous

unknown countless earthquake will happen soon, , so we spent the endless night in our playground and badmiton hall (siince the rain became extreamly heavy ) . we dare not to sleep , each possible tiny shake of the earth made us run out of form the buliding we hiding , some people get a little hurt from them including me..

my hometown was badly damaged ,many people died even including our vice mayor ,since any supply had been cut down in our hometown,,I cant contact with my dad , and i m worride about him.

I know I shoulnt complaint too much,comparing with many other people , im lucky enough , my best friend's friend 's all of her family (9 people)died .she is the only one alive.

during the time we spending , we can do nothing but waiting , darkness, sleepless , hopeless and hlepless. i still remember the suddenly strong shake of the building where we had a class in at that moment , our teacher shouted to us "RUN !JUST RUN!"we dashed outside and we began to lose banlence......."

And an excerpt from an article at www.globeandmail.com -

The 7.8 magnitude quake, centred in Sichuan province, struck in the middle of the school day yesterday and toppled at least eight schools. Chemical-laden factories and at least one hospital collapsed, trapping hundreds more, state news media said.

The death toll appeared likely to climb in China's worst earthquake in more than three decades as troops struggled on foot to reach the worst-hit area of Wenchuan, some 100 kilometres from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province...

..."Not one minute can be wasted," Mr. Wen said. "One minute, one second, could mean a child's life."

The rescue team (picture)