[NTD Times, Beijing time, May 12, 2023]Today (May 12) marks the 15th anniversary of the Wenchuan Earthquake. Four earthquakes occurred in Luding County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province in the early morning, drawing attention.
According to the China Earthquake Network, from 2:34 to 6:07 today, four earthquakes occurred in Luding County, Sichuan Province, with magnitudes of 4.5, 4.2, 3.0, and 4.0, with a focal depth of 10 kilometers.
Videos posted on the Internet showed that when the earthquake occurred, residents felt the tremors strongly in their homes, and the furniture was shaking.
Ms. Zhang, a resident of Luding County, said that she was awakened in her sleep. “The fear is real. I was awakened. The shallow earthquake is very felt. This time it is obviously more serious than the previous one. I was awakened by the awakening.” , lying on the bed and still not daring to sleep. The fear is real.”
According to the data, an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and magnitude 5.6 occurred near the earthquake area on September 5, 2022 and January 26, 2023, respectively.
A few days ago, the China Earthquake Network announced that from May 3 to 6, earthquakes of magnitude 3 or above occurred in Sichuan for 4 consecutive days, with a total of 7 earthquakes!
Earthquakes have occurred frequently in Sichuan recently, and many mainland netizens are worried whether it may be a precursor to a major earthquake. After all, the Wenchuan Earthquake has left people with painful memories.
Coincidentally, May 12th is the 15th anniversary of the Wenchuan Earthquake. Four earthquakes occurred in Sichuan on that day, which attracted attention and topped the Weibo hot search list.
Netizens prayed one after another: “God, why is there an earthquake today, I hope everyone is safe and well.” “May 12 may be safe.” It’s really not suitable for living.”
“I just read the news about the earthquake in Sichuan, and my heart suddenly trembled: Today is the 15th anniversary of the 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake… May Sichuan be safe and the Luding earthquake free of casualties. I remember when the Wenchuan earthquake occurred in 2008, my wife ( I was a girlfriend at the time) was on a business trip in Xi’an, and the tremors there were very strong. She was overwhelmed with fright and kept crying on the phone. I spent one-third of my monthly salary to buy a full-price ticket to fly there to accompany her.”
“I still have a lot of pictures from the earthquake. They are pictures of the scene. It was very tragic. There were corpses everywhere. People in pain. It was hell on earth.”
At least 70,000 people killed in Wenchuan earthquake
Fifteen years ago, a major earthquake occurred in Wenchuan, Sichuan, which caused tens of thousands of deaths and shocked the world.
At 14:28:04 on May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale occurred in Wenchuan. According to official reports, nearly 70,000 people were killed, 18,000 people were missing, and more than 370,000 people were injured. However, according to folk estimates, the death toll is around 300,000, and the death toll of students is more than 30,000.
When the Wenchuan Earthquake occurred, many students died in the bean curd project. Among them, the entire teaching building of Dujiangyan Juyuan Middle School collapsed, and hundreds of teachers and students were buried alive. It was one of the schools with the most serious casualties.
Parents of many students who died have defended their rights for many years and demanded that the bean curd project be held accountable, but the official response was that it was caused by natural disasters, which made the parents feel dissatisfied. Some parents have also been suppressed and detained by the authorities, put in black jails, placed under house arrest, and restricted in personal freedom.
In addition, after the Wenchuan earthquake, people from all walks of life donated money for disaster relief, but there was a scandal that the whereabouts of the relief funds were unknown. According to a report released by Tsinghua University in 2008, as of November of that year, donations across the country reached 65.25 billion yuan.
The BBC reported that 80% of the donations went to government accounts, but only 15.1 billion of the more than 60 billion yuan in charitable donations was cleared. Since the Wenchuan earthquake, people’s trust in government-run charities such as the Red Cross Society of China has begun to decline.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Luo Tingting/Editor in charge: Wen Hui)