Cyclone kills 76+ in India

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Cyclone kills 76 people in eastern India

             ..By MANIK BANERJEE, Associated Press Writer Manik Banerjee, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago

CALCUTTA, India – A cyclone packing winds of more than 100 mph (160 kph) demolished tens of thousands of mud huts in northeastern India, killing at least 76 people, officials said Wednesday.

The cyclone struck Tuesday night in northeastern parts of West Bengal and Bihar states, uprooting trees and snapping telephone and electricity lines, West Bengal Civil Defense Minister Srikumar Mukherjee said. Hundreds of people were injured.

Television footage showed uprooted trees lying across shanties and sheets of corrugated metal ripped from the roofs of homes. Small children sat outside their damaged huts as parents tried to salvage their belongings from inside.

The cyclone demolished nearly 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal and more than 1,000 in Bihar, officials said.

The worst-hit villages in West Bengal state were Hematabad, Raiganj and Kiran Dighi, where police and rescue teams have recovered 39 bodies, Ramanuj Chakraborty, a senior local official told The Associated Press.

Another 37 people were killed in the northeastern Bihar districts of Araria, Kishenganj and Purnea, top Bihar state official Nitish Kumar told reporters.

By Wednesday evening, authorities had begun rushing medical teams and food supplies to the cyclone-hit area, Chakraborty said. Temporary shelters were also being set up for those who had lost their homes, he said.

A prison wall collapsed in Bihar's Araria district, forcing authorities to shift more than 600 inmates to another prison, Kumar said.

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It's hard to believe 10's of thousands of people are living in mud huts in a country with such a large economy.

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 By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer – 47 mins ago
BEIJING – A series of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous Tibetan area of western China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, officials said. Many more people were trapped and the toll was expected to rise.

The largest quake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey as magnitude 6.9. In the aftermath, panicked people, many bleeding from their wounds, flooded the streets of a Qinghai province township where most of the homes had been flattened. Students were reportedly buried inside several damaged schools.

Paramilitary police used shovels to dig through the rubble in the town, footage on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not available and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the area. Hospitals were overwhelmed, many lacking even the most basic supplies, and doctors were in short supply.

Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks also hindered rescue efforts, said Wu Yong, a local military chief, who said the death toll "may rise further as lots of houses collapsed."

With many people forced outside, the provincial government said it was rushing 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets to the mountainous region, where the average daily temperatures were around 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius).

Workers were racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster area where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

The Wednesday quake, which struck at 7:49 a.m. local time (2349 GMT, 7:49 p.m. EDT), was centered on Yushu county, in the southern part of Qinghai, near Tibet, with a population of about 100,000, mostly herders and farmers.

The USGS recorded six temblors in less than three hours, all but one registering 5.0 or higher. The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the largest quake's magnitude at 7.1. Qinghai averages more than five earthquakes a year of at least magnitude 5.0, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. They normally do not cause much damage in the sparsely populated province.

Residents fled as the ground shook, toppling houses made of mud and wood, as well as temples, gas stations, electric poles and the top of a Buddhist pagoda in a park, witnesses and state media said. The quake also triggered landslides, Xinhua said.

"Nearly all the houses made of mud and wood collapsed. There was so much dust in the air, we couldn't see anything," said Ren Yu, general manager of Yushu Hotel in Jiegu. "There was a lot of panic. People were crying on the streets. Some of our staff, who were reunited with their parents, were also in tears."

More than 100 guests of the hotel, which was relatively undamaged, were evacuated to open spaces such as public squares, Ren told The Associated Press by phone. After transporting guests to safety, hotel staff then helped in rescue efforts in other buildings, Ren said.

"We pulled out 70 people, but some of them died on the way to the hospital," Ren said, adding other survivors were put in tents in the hotel yard while they awaited assistance.

The death toll rose to about 400 by afternoon, according to CCTV. Emergency official Pubucairen, who goes by only one name, was quoted as saying that the number of injured has risen to more than 10,000. The official said rescuers were treating the injured at hospitals, race tracks and sports stadiums.

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Significant Earthquakes 2010
•Magnitude 6.9 SOUTHERN QINGHAI, CHINA April 13, 2010
•Magnitude 6.3 SPAIN April 11, 2010
•Magnitude 6.8 SOLOMON ISLANDS April 11, 2010
•Magnitude 7.7 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA April 06, 2010
•Magnitude 7.2 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO April 04, 2010
•Magnitude 4.4 GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA March 16, 2010
•Magnitude 6.7 OFFSHORE BIO-BIO, CHILE March 16, 2010
•Magnitude 6.5 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN March 14, 2010
•Magnitude 6.9 LIBERTADOR O HIGGINS, CHILE March 11, 2010
•Magnitude 6.1 EASTERN TURKEY March 08, 2010
•Magnitude 6.8 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA March 05, 2010
•Magnitude 6.6 OFFSHORE BIO-BIO, CHILE March 05, 2010
•Magnitude 8.8 OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE February 27, 2010
•Magnitude 7.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN February 26, 2010
•Magnitude 6.9 CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA BORDER REGION February 18, 2010
•Magnitude 3.8 ILLINOIS February 10, 2010
•Magnitude 5.9 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA February 04, 2010
•Magnitude 6.2 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA February 01, 2010
•Magnitude 5.9 HAITI REGION January 20, 2010
•Magnitude 4.0 OKLAHOMA January 15, 2010
•Magnitude 7.0 HAITI REGION January 12, 2010
•Magnitude 6.5 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA January 10, 2010
•Magnitude 4.1 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA January 07, 2010
•Magnitude 6.8 SOLOMON ISLANDS January 05, 2010
•Magnitude 7.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS January 03, 2010
•Magnitude 6.6 SOLOMON ISLANDS January 03, 2010