Quake-hit Chinese flee as rivers back up

DONGHEKOU, China - Two rivers blocked by landslides threatened to flood towns shattered by China's massive earthquake, sending thousands of survivors fleeing Saturday.

A mountain sheared off by Monday's powerful tremor cut the Qingzhu River and swallowed the riverside village of Donghekou, entombing an unknown number of people inside a huge mound of earth.

Compounding the horror for survivors Saturday was a lake rising behind the wall of debris that threatened to break its banks and send torrents into villages downstream.

Panicky residents streamed out of the county on the northern edge of the quake zone, spurred on by mobile phonetext messages sent en masse by local government officials warning that the water level was rising and people downstream were being evacuated.

In the town of Beichuan, 60 miles to the south, thousands fled as the reports circulated.

Rescue work resumed later in the day, and experts were monitoring the river above Beichuan, the People's Daily newspaper said on its Web site. The swift exodus underscored the jitters running through the stricken zone.

The quake was China's worst disaster in 30 years. Officials said Saturday that 12.5 million homes had been damaged, and 3.1 million had collapsed.

A strong aftershock - the second in two days and measured by the U.S. GeologicalSurvey at magnitude 5.7 - shook the area early today for 45 seconds, causing people to run into the streets.

FAMILIES LOST

In all the devastation wrought by the quake, little looks as bleak as Donghekou.

The road to the village ends in a tangled twist of metal and tar. In the small valley below, the village itself has disappeared because of the mountain collapse. Locals said two other villages upstream, Ciban and Kangle, had suffered the same fate. The three villages were home to about 300 families, locals said.

"Oh God! I have lost everything," said Wen Xiaoying, 32, whose voice shook as she surveyed the valley below for the first time since returning from far-off Guangdong province where she worked.

She held up one hand as she ticked off the family members who had died - her father, mother, sister and brother-in-law - all buried somewhere in the muck before her.

"When I saw them the last time, we celebrated together," said Wen, a glimmer of a smile showing through as she remembered happier days. "I didn't expect it would be the last time I saw them."

Su Ciyao trudged over the bend in plastic slippers, carrying a plastic rice bag stuffed with salvaged clothes.

"My village is over there," the 44-year-old said, gesturing to the swollen earth behind him. Asked where his family was, he could only shake his head.

"Only me," he said and then set off without a backward glance.

Drizzling rain in the valley added to the misery of carloads of people who clogged the twisting mountain roads as they streamed out of the region.

HELP FOR SURVIVORS

The government's daily update added another few thousand bodies to the death toll as the number continued climbing toward an expected final tally of at least 50,000. Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said 28,881 deaths havebeen confirmed so far.

The official Xinhua News Agency, citing regional officials, said more than 10,600 people were known to be still buried almost one week after the 7.9-magnitude quake hit, shattering thousands of buildings in dozens of towns and cities in Sichuan province.

More than 200 rescue workers from Japan, Russia, South Korea and Singapore are searching alongside Chinese soldiers.

More international aid was arriving, with a U.S. Air Force cargoplane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals landing today in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.

The number of security forces helping victims rose to almost 150,000, and the government decided to add cash payments to victims.

The government would give $715 in compensation to each family that lost a member in the earthquake, China National Radio reported Saturday on its Web site. At a State Council meeting hosted by Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing, the government also decided it would hand out a daily ration of food and $1.40 to survivors, the report said.

Almost a week after the quake struck, rescues were still occurring.

Rescuers pulled at least eight more survivors from collapsed buildings, the latest being a manfound alive after being trapped for 139 hours in Sichuan province.

Xinhua said today that the man, Tang Xiong, was rescued from the collapsed hospital in Beichuan in the northern part of the province.

It said Tang "was only slightly bruised" when he was pulled to safety.

Among the other survivors, a man was saved after 128 hours. Both of his legs had to be amputated. Another man, 20-year-old highway worker Jiang Yuhang, was pulled free shortly after his mother arrived from a neighboring province.

"I was expecting to see my son's body. I never expected to see him alive," his mother, Long Jinyu, said on state television.

Experts say the trapped earthquake survivors can last a week or more, depending on the temperature and whether they havewater to drink, but the chances of survival diminish rapidly after the first 24 hours.

In the town of Longhua, rescuers used saws, drills, torches and hands Saturday to free 31-year-old Bian Gengfeng from the wreckage of a six-story apartment building.

A man rescued from the same site Friday told rescuers that he had been talking with a woman still trapped, setting off Saturday's effort.

"Uncle called me yesterday and said 'mom was alive' and I should come and wait here," said 10-year-old Luo Ting, who watched her mother being rescued.

Xinhua said Russian rescuers had found a 61-year-old woman alive late Saturday after she had been buried for 127 hours, the first survivor found by foreign workers.

NUCLEAR FACILITY FEARS

In Beijing, China's nuclear safety agency had ordered staff members to be prepared for an environmental emergency after the earthquake jolted the region that includes several key atomic sites. France's nuclear watchdog has said some of China's nuclear facilities suffered minor damage, though no Chinese government Web sites viewed Saturday mentioned any damage.

China's Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center, part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, activated emergency plans the day after the quake and told all emergency personnel to be on standby, the center said in an announcement on its Web site.

Officials were in close contact with safety stations throughout the region and were monitoring operational data from nuclear plants, the undated announcement said. The safety of drinking water was a top priority.

"With the deepening of the relief work, the main task is to prevent secondary environmental disasters and guarantee the safety of the environment in disaster areas," the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a separate statement Friday.

Information for this article was contributed by Anita Chang, Lily Hindy, Angela Charlton and Foster Klug of The Associated Press and by Edward Wongz of The New York Times.