What Is This World Coming To?

Only hours after reporting 107 deaths from a 7.8 earthquake in Sichuan province, authorities revised the figure upwards — to three to five thousand and is expected to rise as the extent of the damage is known. The quake was centered in western China, but was so powerful that it could be felt as far away as Hanoi and Bangkok.

Six transformer substations shut down and five power plants were disconnected from the power grid after the Sichuan quake, Xinhua reported, citing State Grid Corp., China’s monopoly power distributor in all but five provinces.

The international airport in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, was temporarily closed and all domestic flights were being diverted, state media said. China Eastern Airlines Corp. (CEA) canceled its flights to Chengdu, state media reported.

Cell phone service was affected in Sichuan and northwestern Shaanxi province, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said, citing employees from China Mobile Ltd. ( CHL) and China Unicom (CHU).

About 2,300 base stations in Sichuan province stopped operating due to power shutdowns and transmission failures, Xinhua said, citing China Mobile’s Sichuan branch.

In Beijing, almost 1,400 miles away, buildings swayed for two minutes, while the effects were felt all over the country. In Shanghai, the Jinmao tower, the country’s tallest building, was evacuated, along with many other of the city’s skyscrapers, while residents reported feeling the tremors even in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

“People in our building all panicked. We went out for shelter. I felt a strong earthquake, similar to the one in Kobe [Japan],” said Shen Jie, a banker working in a Japanese bank on the 20th floor of a Shanghai skyscraper.

It was also felt in neighboring countries as far south as Bangkok, Thailand. According to the USGS the Sichuan earthquake was the twenty-sixth ’significant’ earthquake of 2008. For comparison purposes, the same USGS lists a total of forty-four (if I counted right) ’significant earthquakes’ for the entire decade of the 1970’s.

The death toll has surpassed 15,000 as of May 14, and is expected to continue to climb - ed