German saved 117 hrs after buried in China's earthquake BEICHUAN, China - A German tourist and a 52-year-old man were rescued Saturday — nearly five days after being buried by a powerful earthquake that ravaged China's Sichuan province, state media reported. The news comes as authorities prepare for the daunting task of housing and feeding millions left homeless by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake Monday. Officials have said the death toll could reach 50,000. The tourist was dug out of rubble after being buried for 114 hours in Wenchuan, the quake's epicenter, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The man was rescued after being buried for 117 hours under a collapsed building in Beichuan, Xinhua said. The reports did not give more details. The two survivors were the latest of several people rescued far past what experts call the critical three-day "window" for finding survivors. China Central Television reported Saturday rescuers extricated a 10-year-old girl who was trapped under her collapsed elementary school for 100 hours. With the help of a crane, dozens of workers removed the fourth-grader from the rubble of Yingxiu Central Elementary School in Wenchuan on Friday evening after working all day. A dozen students had been rescued from the school, CCTV said. The girl's condition was not known. CCTV said medical teams were treating the girl, who looked like a dusty rag doll when she was pulled out of the wreckage, missing a shoe and with a white cloth tied over her face to protect her from the blinding light after being in the dark for so long. Rescue teams recovered 163 people alive on Friday, CCTV said Saturday. President Hu Jintao, who arrived in Sichuan on Friday, was shown on television comforting survivors and encouraging soldiers carrying out rescue work. The vast majority of survivors are rescued in the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival dropping each day, said Dr. Irving Jacoby of the University of California. A person trapped but uninjured could survive for a week or even 10 days, and in extreme circumstances two weeks or more. "They could live for a week without food but water is needed" to prevent dehydration, said Jacoby, who heads a San Diego-based medical assistance team that responded to a 1989 earthquake in California, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and other disasters. Continuing aftershocks make digging through unstable buildings dangerous. An aftershock rattled parts of central Sichuan province on Friday afternoon, Xinhua said. A number of vehicles were buried on a road leading to the epicenter, but the number of casualties was unknown. Rescue teams from South Korea, Singapore and Russia got to work Saturday. They joined a Japanese specialist group, which was the first international rescue crew to arrive in the disaster area after China dropped its initial reluctance to accept foreign personnel. A U.S. Air Force cargo plane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals left Hawaii on Saturday, the first aid flight from the United States to help in Sichuan province. Another Air Force delivery was to fly in from Alaska. The United Nations announced a grant of up to $7 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund, to be used by U.N. agencies and programs. The government has not given a figure for the number of people left homeless, but Housing Minister Jiang Weixin said more than 4 million apartments and homes had been damaged or destroyed in Sichuan province. He said the water supply situation was "extremely serious" in Sichuan, and not flowing at all in 20 cities and counties. Caring for the untold tens of thousands or more survivors across the earthquake zone was stretching government resources. Just north of the provincial capital of Chengdu, the town square in Shifang was a tented encampment for 2,000 people, and coordinator Li Yuanshao reported a lack of tents. Many people walked in from surrounding towns with few belongings. "We brought almost nothing, only the clothes we are wearing," said Zhang Xinyong, a high school junior who walked several hours to the camp. In the town of Yingxiu, helicopters dropped leaflets urging people to "unite together" and giving tips like not to drink dirty water. Power and water remained cut off, and dazed and exhausted residents had hike 40 yards up a steep hill to a spring to fetch water. On another hillside, at least 80 corpses in plastic body bags were placed into a trench dug by soldiers. The confirmed death toll had risen to about 22,069 on Friday, but another 14,000 were thought to be buried in Sichuan.
wow.... thats amazing with the weather over there raining and then being all hot... cant believe they survived
Man, I feel hecka bad for all those people over there. Its like their whole life has been torn. =[. And that german tourist is so lucky to have survived.... I dunno how I could go even one day without food ...=o......
