Largest Utah earthquake in 18 years rattles homes, causing only minor damage
Shannon Butler was cooking at a restaurant in Randolph Thursday when the earth started shaking and knocked her into a nearby counter.
"It shook us pretty good," said Stacey Showalter, who also works at the Gator Drive-In and Game Room. "Some things came off the shelves, the cupboards popped open and pictures came off the wall."
A 4.9 magnitude earthquake was reported at 5:59 p.m. five miles northeast of Randolph, near the Utah-Wyoming border Thursday — the largest earthquake in Utah in 18 years.
Only minor damage was reported from the quake that occurred in a relatively shallow depth of just over a quarter mile along the Crawford Fault, according to readings at the seismic network operated by the University of Utah.
U. seismologist Relu Burlacu said the earthquake is small, especially compared with recent quakes that have cost hundreds of lives, including a 6.9 magnitude quake in China on April 13.
The 4.9 quake is the largest to hit Utah since St. George experienced a 5.9 earthquake in 1992.
"The amplitude of the event in 1992 was 10 times bigger, and in energy that event was 30 times larger," Burlacu said.
An earthquake which struck Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the early morning of April 14 is now said to have been much more devastating than initial reports indicated. As of Wednesday night, 589 were confirmed dead, yet local Chinese media reported the injured as being in the tens of thousands.
An estimated 90 percent of the houses in the capital of Jiegu are said to have collapsed with many people being buried underneath the rubble in freezing temperatures. Most people are out on the streets as aftershocks continue to roll through the region.
The devastating magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Qinghai Province at 7:49 a.m. local time on April 14 and was followed by a 6.3 aftershock at 9:25 a.m. Due to a lack of relief support, some local rescuers are reportedly relying on digging with their bare hands.
According to China National Radio, the Red Cross of Yushu indicated that 70 percent of schools have collapsed in Yushu. Deputy Secretary of Yushu Education Bureau Xiao Yuping said 56 students have died as of 9:40 p.m.
China Central Television reported that Xihun, a village near the capital Jiegu, has been leveled, where 99 percent of the houses collapsed.
Department of Civil Affairs of Qinghai Province reported that the epicenter of the quake was located in a mountainous area 4,300 meters (14,107 feet) above sea level, 18 miles from Yushu County.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.9 on the Richter scale, whereas the China Seismic Information Web site said the magnitude was 7.1.
Both China News and Xinhua News reported that Jiegu Township, the capital of Yushu County, has more than 100,000 residents.
Zhuo Huaxia, vice minister of Yushu Prefecture Committee Propaganda Department indicated that 90 percent of houses in Jiegu Township have collapsed and many people are buried under the rubble. He also indicated that the roads to Yushu Airport, which is 18 miles southwest of Jiegu, have been disconnected. Governmental vehicles have not been able to return from the airport. Communication to the airport has also been disrupted.
Zhou said, I can see injured people everywhere. It’s impossible to estimate how many are there.”
The deputy mayor of Yushu County indicated that they have already rescued several thousand people from the rubble, but they lack medical equipment and medicine to treat the critically injured, Beijing News reported.
Bare hands rescue
Chinese media also reported that teachers and students in an elementary school in Yushu County rescued 61 students from the rubble with their bare hands, but 34 of them were dead and the other 27 were still lying on the playground waiting for medical treatment.
One Jiegu resident told The Epoch Times that all nearby houses, including his own, had collapsed. He said the government notified the locals not to reveal the extent of the disaster to the outside world. Therefore, he could not reveal more about the situation other than that everyone was very busy.
Sound of Hope Radio (SOH) reported that many students and people are buried beneath the rubble and that no water or shelter is available to the survivors.
Local resident Mr. Wang told SOH that the earthquake destroyed Jiegu. Firefighters are focusing rescue efforts on schools and hotels, but rescue crews for residential areas are unavailable and casualties are rising.
Basically all residential houses have collapsed, including hospitals and schools. Particularly the schools, there are many students buried under the rubble,” Ms. Wang said. Electricity is out. There are some fires. The aftershock quakes continue and have not stopped. There are over 100,000 registered residents in Jiegu. Counting the [unregistered] residents from other provinces, there are about 200,000 people in Jiegu. It’s quite chaotic.”
A Jiegu resident who wished to remain anonymous indicated to SOH that Jiegu Township is nearly gone. He said that many are buried in the collapsed houses. It is very cold at night and snow has just hit the area. The survivors have not received any help.
He said, Many have died. The town is basically gone and ruined. Many people are under the rubble. There are many casualties. Many are dying. There’s no rescue effort here. We don’t know where to stay tonight. There’s no food.”
Ash from Iceland's volcano disrupts UK air traffic. volcano iceland
Officials say ash clouds drifting from Iceland's erupting volcano have disrupted air traffic across Britain.
Flights have been suspended at the English cities of Manchester and Birmingham, as well as in Belfast in Northern Ireland and the Scottish airports at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The ash has also disrupted operations at London Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, where at least 150 flights were canceled. Another 138 flights have been canceled at Britain's second-busiest terminal of London Gatwick.
U.K. airport operator BAA says "major disruption" in air traffic is expected, while the National Air Traffic Service explains "volcanic ash represents a significant safety threat to aircraft."
The volcano erupted Wednesday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
LONDON (AP) — Airports in Scotland have shut down due to ash from Iceland's spewing volcano as it erupts for the second time in less than a month.
Hundreds in Iceland have fled rising floodwaters around the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier.
Airports in the Scottish cities of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh were closed Thursday and flights from the English city of Birmingham and from Belfast in Northern Ireland were also affected.
U.K. airport operator BAA says "major disruption" in air traffic is expected.
The National Air Traffic Service says airspace has been restricted because "volcanic ash represents a significant safety threat to aircraft."
Quake in western China kills 300.china earthquake 2010
BEIJING — Chinese state television says the death toll from a strong earthquake in a western province has risen to about 300, with an additional 8,000 hurt.
China Central Television said the toll from Wednesday's earthquake had risen as rescue workers struggled to dig trapped people out in Qinghai province. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured a magnitude of 6.9.
Rescue efforts were hindered by telecommunications problems, with phone lines down.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BEIJING (AP) — A series of strong earthquakes struck China's western Qinghai province Wednesday, toppling houses, killing at least 67 people and burying many others in a mountainous rural area, officials and state media said.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site that a magnitude 6.9 temblor struck an area in southern Qinghai, near Tibet, on Wednesday morning and was followed by three quakes in the same area.
The main quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled houses made of mud and wood, said Karsum Nyima, the Yushu county television station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with broadcaster CCTV.
"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," he said. "In a small park, there is a Buddhist tower and the top of the tower fell off.
"Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members," he said, adding that school buildings had not collapsed but that students had been evacuated and were assembled in outdoor playgrounds.
The quake hit the county of Yushu, a Tibetan area in Qinghai's south, the official Xinhua News Agency cited the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying. The Chinese center measured the quake's magnitude at 7.1. A local government Web site put the county's population in 2005 at 89,300, a community of mostly herders and farmers.
The China Earthquake Administration announced the initial death toll in a brief statement on its Web site. Rescue efforts were hindered by telecommunications problems, with phone lines down, the notice said.
State television showed footage of paramilitary police using shovels to dig around a house with a collapsed wooden roof. A local military official, Shi Huajie, told state broadcaster CCTV rescuers were working with limited equipment.
"The difficulty we face is that we don't have any excavators. Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to pull them out with human labor," Shi said. "It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands."
Wu Yong, a local military chief, said medical workers were also urgently needed but that roads leading to the airport had been badly damaged by the quake, creating difficulties for people and supplies to be flown in.
The epicenter of the first quake was located 235 miles (380 kilometers) south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), the USGS said.
Ten minutes later, the area was hit by a magnitude 5.3 quake, which was followed after two minutes by a temblor measuring 5.2, according to the U.S. agency. Both the subsequent earthquakes were measured at a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers). Another quake, measuring 5.8, was recorded at 9:25 a.m.
CCTV cited Sun Shihong, an analyst at the China Earthquake Networks Center, as saying the subsequent temblors were aftershocks and that Yushu county is located in an earthquake-prone area.
Calls to the local Communist Party office and the government of Yushu county and the Qinghai provincial seismological bureau rang unanswered.
In 2008, a magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing
