Seeing the remnants of the Wenchuan Earthquake at Xiankou Middle School,Yingxiu was reality hitting rock - bottom. After the beauty of Jiuzhaigou, we made a detour on a cold, grim day to witness the devastation wrought at one of many sites of a natural disaster of massive magnitude. The Wenchuan Earthquake ( Wenchuan was the earthquake's epicentre), similarly known as the Great Sichuan Earthquake, 2008 registered 8.5 on the Richter scale. There were 149 - 284 major aftershocks with reports of tremors reaching faraway to Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, India !
Here we were in this place where a key Middle High School of 1527 student and 133 teacher population stood. Silence reigns here with the rubble remaining. The school bell will not ever ring again. Tourists like us make a visit . For the locals, this is a grim daily reminder . A 5.12 Memorial Clock showing 2.28 pm when the quake happened was set up to remember the loved ones on that fateful day, May 12. Behind the Memorial, the 5 storey building was down to ground level. This tragedy was mourned by the nation and The State Council gave order for a 3 day national mourning on May 19, 2008.
The buildings collapsed in mountains of heaps and some near falling and cracked and standing are now relics. The huge clock shows 5.12. That's when disaster struck on May, 12th. All hell broke loose. It must have. On can imagine the students' desperate cries, how the teachers must have fought in vain to rescue them and fell victims themselves.
Coming from a country spared from natural disasters, it is quite easy to forget about natural calamities.The ruins we saw can surely touch anyone. It is no more about images that flashed on tv screens.
Here we were in this place where a key Middle High School of 1527 student and 133 teacher population stood. Silence reigns here with the rubble remaining. The school bell will not ever ring again. Tourists like us make a visit . For the locals, this is a grim daily reminder . A 5.12 Memorial Clock showing 2.28 pm when the quake happened was set up to remember the loved ones on that fateful day, May 12. Behind the Memorial, the 5 storey building was down to ground level. This tragedy was mourned by the nation and The State Council gave order for a 3 day national mourning on May 19, 2008.
The buildings collapsed in mountains of heaps and some near falling and cracked and standing are now relics. The huge clock shows 5.12. That's when disaster struck on May, 12th. All hell broke loose. It must have. On can imagine the students' desperate cries, how the teachers must have fought in vain to rescue them and fell victims themselves.
Coming from a country spared from natural disasters, it is quite easy to forget about natural calamities.The ruins we saw can surely touch anyone. It is no more about images that flashed on tv screens.
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So painful to look at. Must have been eerie being a tourist in such a place...
ReplyDeleteA reminder of how quickly life can change, how fragile we are, and the difference of a few minutes. God bless the memory of this disaster.
ReplyDeleteRosaria of sixty five what now, described the next stage of calamity as the stage where everybody, reporters, tv, media, left and the victim has to go through the cleaning up and rebuilding, alone. Your pictures are a testimony of that. But I must say that the ruins are beautiful especially the cracked still standing building. The preservation is very well done and serves as a reminder and touching memorial.
ReplyDeleteWow. So many people's lives changed all at once. Thank you for sharing this and reminding us of this fact.
ReplyDeleteEvery calamity is so depressing, we also have some share of earthquake calamities like that a few years ago. I am sure you get the negative emotions in looking at those ruins. I don't want my consciousness to settle on that, so i would like to say your photos are so beautifully composed, very well done. I choose the 2nd photo mostly.
ReplyDeleteI dont know what to say.
ReplyDeleteYou have turned this in to photo journalism.
The good and bad, beautiful and painful at the same time.
All the good wishes.
We can only do our best...
ReplyDeleteChilling reminder of the unfortunate calamity. Thanks for sharing.Hope they rebuild the school rather than leaving it as a monument of disaster.
ReplyDeleteVery telling pictures. My heart goes out to the victims.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... earthquakes... my sympathies go to the victims...
ReplyDeleteHi Keats! Sorry for the absence, but these last two months have been nasty! My mother (90) was in hospital for more than three weeks and the post-surgery was hard! My father (94) seemed to be orphan while my mother was out and felt into some kind of depression... The economy is a disaster and the media only bring bad news... The € Euro is rescued every day, only to be known that it needs to be rescued again and again... What else? Well, maybe «Midnight in Paris»... The problem is that the Gil there is a different one... ;)
ReplyDeleteIncredible shots!!
Blogtrotter Two wanders currently around Porto Vecchio and the beaches in the region! Enjoy and have a wonderful week ahead!
It saddens me to see such catastrophies in the world, such large forces of nature which we can't control, that change peoples lives so drastically and so suddenly. I feel for those who have seen or lost someone to such incidents...
ReplyDeleteHello! I do not know what to say...
ReplyDeleteSo painful to look at.
Tragic! When will Mother Earth settle down!
ReplyDeleteThis is sad. Earthquake in China, floods in Thailand. I can see water rising here as well. Hope it doesn't worsen...
ReplyDeleteSo sad. I can't even take in the devastation and horror of such an occurance.
ReplyDeleteSolemn reminders of a great tragedy.
ReplyDelete