China quake: 69 dams near collapse
BEIJING, China (CNN) — China warned Sunday that dozens of dams were in danger of collapse in Sichuan province following the 7.9-maginitude earthquake that devastated the region earlier this month.
The warning came as authorities revised up the death toll from the May 12 disaster to 62,664 with another 23,775 missing and a powerful magnitude 5.8 aftershock hit the area killing at least one person and injuring 400 others.
The aftershock — the strongest since another of equal magnitude a day after the quake — was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, 240 kilometers from the aftershock’s epicenter.
China’s water ministry on Sunday warned that 69 dams were close to bursting their banks.
It was not immediately clear what the risk presented by the damaged dams presented. Earlier dam scares have seen China mobilize its military to perform emergency engineering work on damaged structures.
Meanwhile, state media reported Sunday that rescue workers had two days earlier pulled an 80-year-old paraplegic man from the rubble of his home, 11 days after he was trapped by the quake.
The man, Xiao Zhihu, had been trapped for nearly 266 hours.
The beam of Xiao’s house in Mianzhu City collapsed during the quake, trapping him, China’s state-run television CCTV said.
The station said Xiao’s wife could not go and call for help. She brought him food, until he was found and freed by rescue crews Friday.
Since the quake struck, workers have made several other dramatic rescues. But the numbers have dwindled in recent days as time has passed.
China’s central government put the death toll from the quake at 60,560 with another 26,221 people missing and 353,290 injured.
The government estimates that 45 million people, mostly in the Sichuan province, were affected by the massive earthquake and that five million were left homeless.
On Saturday, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao gave United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a dramatic look at the damage, taking him to a town near the epicenter.
The world will not forget, Ban told Wen, who appealed the U.N. chief to help raise international aid for the region.
Wen said no infectious disease outbreaks have developed despite the harsh living conditions for survivors. Wen optimistically predicted that life would return to normal in the quake area in about three months.
