A Major Earthquake Shakes China's Sichuan Province

▪ 2009

 On May 12, 2008, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake brought enormous devastation to the mountainous central region of Sichuan province in southwestern China. The epicentre was in the city of Wenchuan, and some 80% of the structures in the area were flattened. Whole villages and towns in the mountains were destroyed, and many schools collapsed. China's government quickly deployed 130,000 soldiers and other relief workers to the stricken area, but the damage from the earthquake made many remote villages difficult to reach, and the lack of modern rescue equipment caused delays that might have contributed to the number of deaths. After a few days, China asked for outside help. Millions of people were made homeless, and some 90,000 were counted as dead or missing in the final assessment. Hundreds of dams, including two major ones, were found to have sustained damage. Some 200 relief workers were reported to have died in mud slides in the affected area, where damming of rivers and lakes by rocks, mud, and earthquake debris made flooding a major threat. The full extent of the damage was likely to remain unclear for some time. One week after the temblor, China declared three days of official mourning for the earthquake victims.

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