China asks public for quake rescue equipment

Amid the tragedy, some miracles
Amid the tragedy, onlookers erupted into cheers and applause when a 34-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant was rescued after spending 50 hours under debris in the Dujiangyan area.

"It's a miracle brought about by us all working together," said Sun Guoli, fire chief of the nearby provincial capital, Chengdu, who supervised the rescue.

But the rescuers called off the search for four others still trapped in the collapsed building, leaving only a smaller crew of dogs to sniff for signs of life.

In Hanwang, the smell of incense hung over a crowd of sobbing relatives who walked among some 60 bodies wrapped in plastic, some covered with tributes of branches or flowers. Nearby, rescuers carried more bodies out of a makeshift morgue at the Dongqi sports arena.

People from the town and surrounding areas packed into blue tents provided by relief officials. Though the mostly older buildings in the town collapsed, a newer Western-style clock tower still stood, its hands stopped at 2:27 — the time the quake hit.

Schoolchildren confirmed dead
At a middle school Sichuan province's Qingchuan county where students were taking a noon nap when the quake demolished a three-story building, 178 children were confirmed dead in the rubble and another 23 remained missing, Xinhua said.

Storms that had prevented flights to some of the worst-hit areas finally cleared on Wednesday. Military helicopters were seen flying north over Dujiangyan, and Xinhua said two of them airdropped food, drinking water and medicine to Yingxiu.

Trains were on their way to Sichuan carrying quilts, drinking water, tents and military personnel, Ministry of Railways spokesman Wong Yongping said. All railways in the province were working except for a line where a 40-car freight train was trapped by a landslide in a tunnel and burned, he said.

Wednesday's leg of the Olympic torch relay in the southeastern city of Ruijin began with a minute of silence.

The Mianzhu No. 3 Hospital was obliterated, and the seven-story main Hanwang Hospital collapsed. Surviving medical staff set up the triage center in the tire factory driveway, but could only provide basic care.

Emergency vehicle sirens sounded every few minutes. An ambulance drove in, delivering a man pulled from the rubble and covered in dust.

"There will be a lot more people. So many still haven't been found," said Zhao, the nurse.

Farther north in An Xian, disaster victims huddled by the road in front of their destroyed homes under a makeshift wood-and-plastic shelter to protect them from the rain. Government buses have brought some survivors from devastated areas, but 38-year-old farmer Li Zizhong said he had not heard from his relatives there yet.

"Who knows what happened to them?" Li said. "All we need is a little something to eat. I'm just happy to be alive."

Disorienting episodes added to the struggle for survival in much of the disaster zone. The Mianyang city government ordered its 700,000 residents to evacuate all buildings between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. because an aftershock was predicted.

In Chengdu, water to some parts of the city was cut for repairs, touching off a rumor that the supply was contaminated. People began hoarding water, and water pressure citywide dropped before a senior official went on TV to deny anything was wrong.

Delays in aid
Residents complained that delays in aid had caused more deaths in the immediate aftermath of the quake.

Zhang Chuanlin, a 27-year-old factory worker, said his 52-year-old mother was trapped while watching television with her friend. No rescue workers were around so he started to dig by himself.

"No one was helping me and then two strangers came and dug through the rubble. They found her an hour later," he said. "When they pulled her out I couldn't look, I just couldn't look when they pulled her out."

A man who gave only his surname Li said he had suffered a double tragedy. His wife was killed while watching TV with Zhang's mother and his daughter died when her school collapsed.

The child did not die right away and could be heard saying, "Please help me daddy, please rescue me," right after the earthquake, he said, but there were no authorities to save her.

In Dujiangyan, a mother pleaded with police for information about her husband who was working in Wenchuan, blocking one of the few roads leading to the epicenter.

"I've begged and begged them to help me look for my husband," Li Zhenhua said, showing her husbands ID card to a crowd of onlookers. "I can't go by myself because I've got a little baby and elderly parents here, so I can't leave."

"The government is doing nothing for us. The government won't help us," she said, over and over.

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