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Quake Victims Search For Scraps Of Past

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The New York Times

Published: June 8, 2008

YINGXIU, China - Small objects, some sentimental, some practical, are all that most survivors from Yingxiu have left of their lives after the May 12 earthquake.

The town lies deep in the mountains of Wenchuan County, at the epicenter of the quake that has killed nearly 70,000 and left 18,000 missing across southwestern China. More than three-quarters of the town's 10,000 residents were killed.
Chinese soldiers here are demolishing building after building. Soon bulldozers will clear away the rubble, leaving no chance to salvage the past. Survivors are venturing back to scavenge while they can.

"What we're looking for is my son's college graduation diploma," said Jing Liangwen, 64, a former member of the National People's Congress. "He's been teaching in a middle school for 10 years, but without the diploma, it's hard to get another job."

He ticked off other paperwork he needed to find: a real estate deed, a work license, health insurance documents, a proof of retirement certificate.

Getting official documents in China can be as arcane a process as deciphering classical manuscripts.

CHINA DRAINS LAKE

MIANYANG, China - Water poured from a massive lake formed by China's deadly earthquake in a carefully engineered diversion Saturday to ease the threat of flooding for a million people in the sprawling disaster zone.

After two weeks of frantic work by engineers and soldiers, water flowed into the hurriedly built spillway, but at a rate too slow to cause the lake's level to drop. Military engineers dynamited boulders and soldiers used excavators to deepen the channel to accelerate the flow, state media said.

The Tangjiashan lake, created when a landslide dammed the Tongkou River, has become a priority for a government hoping to head off another catastrophe even as it cares for millions left homeless from the May 12 quake that killed nearly 70,000 people. More than 1.3 million people live down river from Tangjiashan; 250,000 of them have been evacuated.

The Associated Press

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