CHINA:"WE WERE at home in Beichuan when the earthquake shook the house. Everything collapsed. We had to crawl out over dead bodies. We were very scared and we had to use our instincts to get out. We tried all we could do to get out," said Zhao Li, a farmer from the mountains that look down on Beichuan city.
"My mother carried my niece, who is seven months pregnant out of the house all by herself," she said, pointing to her 70-year-old mother who is sitting cross-legged on the ground of the tent beside her in a refugee camp at a football stadium in Guangyan City.
Hundreds of tents were set up here on Thursday, marked "Special for disaster relief" and inside are the refugees from Hanwang, Mianzhu, Beichuan and other cities devastated by the quake. China has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake and suspended the Olympic torch relay, while the search for survivors continues and refugees start to fill the camps in the earthquake zone.
The government raised the confirmed death toll to 32,476, with another 220,109 people injured. There are still believed to be 9,500 buried in Sichuan, the provincial government said, and the final death toll is expected to exceed 50,000.
There are still people being dragged alive from the rubble and the focus of the relief efforts now turns to the isolated communities and villages.
President Hu Jintao asked rescuers to use "every available means" to reach every village affected by the May 12 earthquake in southwest China.
"We must try every method to send rescuers to every quake-hit village, instead of just working in towns and cities, since a large number of soldiers have entered the quake-hit regions," said President Hu during a visit to Shifang city.
Foreign rescue teams from places such as Malaysia, Korea and Japan have also been working in the earthquake zone.
The State Council announced three days of mourning starting a week after the magnitude 7.9 quake hit. Flags will fly at half-mast and people have been told to show respect. It will start with three minutes of silence at 2.28 pm, while air raid sirens and horns of vehicles, trains and ships will sound to mark a nation's grief.
The Beijing Olympic organisers said the torch relay would also be suspended for three days "to express our deep mourning to the victims of the earthquake."
The Guangyan City refugee camp is very well organised and seems to be well provided.
"We've prepared tents, water, pillows and anything else the refugees need. The food supply has been good," said Wen Zhugang, a local government official.
Relief material is coming in at a fast pace, brought by volunteers in cars zipping down a special lane on the motorway with their hazard lights flashing.
But even the stockpiles of food and clothing will not be enough to erase the memories of Monday's quake.
Yang Jiaoming's father was killed in Mianzhu.
"I was selling something in the shop when the earthquake happened. I ran out scared, my father was napping, and he couldn't run out immediately. Luckily my daughter is okay, she was at school but it didn't collapse. The teacher got them all out and they survived," said Mr Yang Jiaoming, a farmer with a small shop on the side, sitting with his family underneath the blue tarpaulin.
Further along the road, at a bigger refugee camp and relief centre in a sports stadium at Deyang, volunteers are lined up moving water along. There is a busy atmosphere, and some of the young volunteers are cheerful to be helping.
"I got here yesterday, it's my duty and my responsibility to help my people overcome their difficulties. Mostly I've been carrying water, vegetables and fruit. My friends are here too," said Bu Wei, a student from Deyang, whose English name is Paris, after Paris Hilton.
A construction worker surnamed Tang, who comes from Zhongjiang County, where just a couple of buildings collapsed, has had a busy morning.
"I want to save people, and I'm a construction worker so I can make a contribution, and use my strength to help the rescue effort. I was in Hanwang this morning and I dug out three bodies," said Mr Tang.
"I'm not a party member, but I want to help my country. I'm going to the disaster area this afternoon again, to Beichuan or Wenchuan. I can help," he said, proudly.
As he is speaking, a young couple carrying a baby looking dusty approach Mr Tang.
"My relatives are buried, you have to help me," the woman said. "They are in the mountains, close to Mianzhu, it's hard to get to but we can show you. There are many bodies there, we're worried about disease," she said.
"Take it easy people, we will help you. Communists will come and dig them out," he said, soothing the woman, who is nearly hysterical.
The fear of disease and infection is heightening as the weather gets warmer.
Survivors now have to think about how to rebuild their lives after the quake, but for some that remains an impossible prospect.
"Future plans? Future plans? Are you joking?" Yang Mingxing gives a hollow laugh and gets up off the tarpaulin he is sitting on to show that basically everything he owns is a truck and the clothes on his back. Everything else is gone. His mother-in-law and his aunt died in the quake.
"I've got nothing in my pockets, they're empty, look," said the farmer from Hanwang. He slaps the ground to show what happened to his house.
"My house is completely flattened, it's not there any more. I have no plans for the future. I just want to get enough food. I just want me and my family to live. That's my plan," said the 39-year-old farmer.
"If you could show you my town, what's left of it, you'd see the meaning of life. There are so many bodies, so many bad injuries," said Mr Yang.
"And there is going to be a flood too, for sure. There is no water, no electricity. Some of my friends are staying up there because their houses are not completely destroyed, or to dig up their relatives and friends. But we got out - life is everything. This is a good place, this camp, very organised. My home town is a disaster," said Mr Yang.
21,000 rescued since quake hit
BEIJING - China's military has said it evacuated 205,371 people from areas hit by the country's deadliest earthquake in 32 years, as aftershocks disrupted relief efforts in Sichuan province.
Military personnel had pulled 21,566 people from the rubble in the six days since the quake, ministry of defence spokesman Hu Changming told journalists in Beijing yesterday.
The death toll rose to 32,477, state-run Xinhua news agency said. The quake injured 220,109, according to the latest official tally yesterday. It levelled more than 4.7 million houses in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.
Sichuan's civil affairs office provided shelter to 4.8 million displaced people at 2,885 locations as of yesterday, the government said.
Chinese authorities upgraded the earthquake to magnitude eight from 7.8, according to Xinhua, while the US Geological Survey measured it at 7.9.
Two US military transport aircraft delivered food, blankets and electrical generators to Sichuan. The two C-17 Globemaster aircraft from the US Pacific Command in Hawaii landed yesterday 90 minutes apart in the city of Chengdu, about 1,500km (932 miles) southwest of Beijing.
Meanwhile, Shen Peiyun (53) was pulled out of the rubble in Yingxiu town in Wenchuan county near the epicentre 148 hours after the quake, Xinhua said yesterday.
Only three others have been found alive since Saturday and one of those has since died, Xinhua reported.
"The earthquake relief is still a grim struggle; the task is arduous and time is pressing," Mr Hu said yesterday in comments published on the government's website.
"I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments and international friends that have contributed to our quake-relief work." - ( Bloomberg)