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Lightning flashed ominously across the sky. Taishan was
awakened by a strange feeling of sleeping on a rocking
bed. He felt dizzy. The lamps were swinging, his chairs
were toppling over, pots and pans came crashing to the
ground. Taishan could not believe his eyes. He tried to
get up. The ground was vibrating. Almost immediately,
there was a series of violent motions. The house shook
and the roof collapsed. Taishan's cries for help soon
became a mere whimper as the debris fell on him. By daybreak, the whole city was
reduced to ruins. The
screams of the trapped and injured filled the air. The
earthquake registered 7.8 on the Richter scale. The
death toll stood at more than two hundred thousand.
About 16% of the victims were killed instantly by
falling beams, bricks, walls and other objects. Another
thirty percent or so suffocated to death in the dust
caused by the earthquake. The rest died of thirst,
hunger or exhaustion before help could reach them. Many
thousands were seriously injured.
Most of the buildings in that city were either destroyed
or damaged. Bridges collapsed and reservoirs were
damaged. Every basic city service was ruined.
Thousands of civil defence workers and medical officers
were sent to help in the rescue operations. During the
days that followed, hot, raining weather aggravated the
health problems in that ruined city. The disposal of
human and animal corpses was a massive undertaking and
broken sewage lines made things worse. Workers suffered
from various diseases caused by the proliferation of
flies, mosquitoes and bacteria. |
