sorry

Sorry, folks, but a neither a 7.8 quake way down in Sichuan– allegedly felt as far afield as Beijing (bollocks- we had our own quake, apparently), Bangkok and Taipei (according to a comment in the Danwei thread) nor a 3.9 quake centered out in Tongzhou is going to cause enough shaking for this Wellingtonian to notice. John seems to have enjoyed it, though. Sitting outside drinking beer, indeed. Judging by his post, it seems Chengdu got off much more lightly than I would’ve expected considering how close to the epicentre it is. And is Chengdu not on a river plain? Silt is not good soil to be on in during an earthquake.

Xinhua’s English language report says four pupils were killed and over 100 injured when the quake toppled two primary schools in Chongqing’s Liangping County. My condolences go to the families’, of course, but at the same time this seems to be a very low casualty rate for such a large quake. I guess we’ll have to wait for more news to filter out, considering there are hints of quite serious damage in some rather far flung places.

Update: A report attributed to Reuters has made it onto New Zealand’s imaginatively-named Stuff (and yes, it is the website of one of NZ’s big newspaper groups). This article claims five deaths, but doesn’t make it clear where that figure comes from. It also states:

But an official at the seismological bureau there said phone lines in Sichuan’s Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the quake, were completely cut off and there were reports of damage to buildings in neighboring counties, meaning there could yet be casualties in that area.

So yes, we’re going to have to wait for more reports.