A 7.9-magnitude earthquake centered in Sichuan Province, China, left 50,000 dead and 5,000,000 homeless. Outside Beichuan Middle School, where 1,000 students and teachers died, parents waited for the bodies of their children to be pulled from the rubble, lighting a single firecracker each time a body was found. A married couple lay under their workers' dormitory for 28 hours, their limbs crushed and entwined. "I tried bending my neck against the wall to kill myself," said the husband after being rescued. Three minutes of silence and three days of mourning were observed throughout the nation, and the Olympic Torch relay was suspended. "Other people who know their relatives have died can call this a memorial day or a funeral," said a farmer named Wang Hongchen, who wandered the ruins shouting his son's name, "but not me yet." Predictions of a powerful new earthquake sent tens of thousands of Chengdu residents rushing to the streets in panic.
Weekly Review
Weekly Review
Weekly Review
A 7.9-magnitude earthquake centered in Sichuan Province, China, left 50,000 dead and 5,000,000 homeless. Outside Beichuan Middle School, where 1,000 students and teachers died, parents waited for the bodies of their children to be pulled from the rubble, lighting a single firecracker each time a body was found. A married couple lay under their workers' dormitory for 28 hours, their limbs crushed and entwined. "I tried bending my neck against the wall to kill myself," said the husband after being rescued. Three minutes of silence and three days of mourning were observed throughout the nation, and the Olympic Torch relay was suspended. "Other people who know their relatives have died can call this a memorial day or a funeral," said a farmer named Wang Hongchen, who wandered the ruins shouting his son's name, "but not me yet." Predictions of a powerful new earthquake sent tens of thousands of Chengdu residents rushing to the streets in panic.