Chinese Search Teams Struggle After Earthquake
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Beichuan, China — Chinese search teams struggled to cope with the scale of the Sichuan earthquake yesterday despite the efforts of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police, and volunteers. A week after the earthquake, the government estimates nearly 10,000 bodies may lie buried in the wreckage of buildings, but many sites are still not being excavated.
“What we need is professional equipment, especially small-scale engineering machinery,” an official overseeing rescue work in Beichuan, the worst-hit major town, Zhou Ming, said. All through the city, much of which was levelled by landslides in the aftermath of the earthquake, bodies lie clearly visible under the rubble.
