Only emptiness left in the epicenter
Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:16 AM
Filed Under:
Beijing, China
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
YINGXIU, China – When the Tibetan Plateau made its latest move, this small city about 50 miles to the west of Chengdu was ground zero. Yingxiu, sitting at the upper end of the Zipingpu reservoir was summarily crushed.
One witness remembers it as more of an explosion than a quake.
"I heard that in Chengdu buildings were swaying for a long time," said 60-year-old Yan Runqi, who was visiting his parents in a village above Yingxiu when the earthquake struck. "Here it felt like three seconds."
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| Ryan Pyle / MSNBC.com |
| Traffic passes along a dirt road next to a collapsed expressway near Yingxiu, China. |
In those few moments on May 12, more than 75 percent of Yingxiu’s population of about 10,000 was wiped out, according to local officials. Initially cut off from all road access, survivors were evacuated by boats launched from the far end of the reservoir and by helicopter.
Only a few days ago did it become possible to drive to Yingxiu to witness the impact at the quake’s epicenter. (NBC News’ Mark Mullen filed a story for the World Blog earlier in our coverage of the quake about an attempt to reach Yingxiu before the road was cleared).
Now a spine jarring dirt road lined with crushed cars and boulders is considered open; though, it has to be cleared almost daily of new debris sliding down the steep mountainside above. As this road heads into town, it passes under the ragged end of a collapsed highway bridge that once looped around the side of the mountain.
A way station to remote mountain region
The destruction of Yingxui is complete – much like the devastation in Beichuan, a larger city that was accessible and widely covered by journalists shortly after the earthquake. The few buildings that remain standing are tipped precariously amid mountains of ruin. The smell of death still hangs in the air, which is thick with dust.
Only a handful of survivors are here now. A few people have come back to salvage bits of furniture. One man returned to try to find the remains of his wife. He was waiting for a cleanup team that had promised to help him dig so he can hold a solitary funeral and bury her again.
But Yingxiu is growing busy again, as a way station for ongoing relief efforts in the remote mountain region beyond. Slow processions of military convoys unload rice and other supplies here, and helicopters continuously land and take off on a broad flat area next to the ruins. Soldiers say these flights are moving supplies to the Wolong panda reserve just to the west, and to Wenchuan city, deep in the mountains.
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| Ryan Pyle / MSNBC.com |
| Zhen Soujun sits near her tent after becoming homeless from the earthquake near the city of Yingxiu, China. |
Authorities are also stockpiling rice in Yingxiu, which will be sent into the more remote areas in larger quantities once the road to those areas is cleared, a process that could take another week. Until then, Wenchuan city, the seat of government in this county, is accessible only by a 10 hour drive from Chengdu over a 12,000 foot mountain pass, or by air.
Yingxiu is also the base for repair and observation of the massive Zipingpu Dam, built in 2006, despite protest from environmental groups who said it was too close to the fault line. Zipingpu's cracks have been repaired, but the dam remains under continuous observation, and some of the water has been released from the reservoir to lower stress on the structure. The Chinese government says that if the dam were breeched, it would deluge Dujiangyan, a large population center six miles downstream.
To rebuild or not?
Whether Yingxiu should be rebuilt remains an open question for some survivors. Residents staying in tents along the road said that when Premier Wen Jiabao visited Yingxiu on Saturday he promised them it would be restored – and better than ever – within three years. Some of these residents said they are eager to get started.
But looking over a town so ruined that it was barely recognizable was enough to give pause to 80-year-old Zhen Soujun, whose family had been here for generations.
"We need some experts to come in here and look at the geology to decide how dangerous it is to live here," she said. "If the government tells us we should move, then we will move."
