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Sounds of Life, but Few Options for Rescue
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One woman was rescued from the second story of an apartment building after soldiers heard her moaning. The building's front wall had been shorn off and the floors and walls were cantilevered.
Using a crowbar to lift the debris of the unstable structure, rescuers spent three hours pulling her out. Once she was freed, they wrapped her in cotton batting and laid her on a stretcher. Her nose and mouth were caked with ashes and dirt, which they brushed away. The only vein they could find to administer an intravenous drip was in her foot.
Cui Changqing was one of several volunteer doctors wandering the ruins of Beichuan with a shopping bag of medicine. Tied to his doctor's coat was a red ribbon. "Everyone with this ribbon is from Tangshan," he said, the site of the earthquake that killed an estimated 240,000 people in 1976.
Cui's parents were survivors of that disaster. When he saw the news of the Sichuan quake, he asked his hospital for time off and airfare to reach the site.
The dead were laid out near where they had been found. One body, covered in a pink sheet, was about 100 yards from where the soldiers were planning their rescue efforts.
After about two hours of discussion, they heard by radio that more children were alive in the rubble of a school farther down the valley. Since they could confirm only one person alive in this place, they left behind some bottled water and six army paramedics and moved out to try to rescue those at the school.
Several local men who had been watching the scene scrambled down the valley and began moving rocks and wood to see if they could get a water bottle to the person trapped underneath. In all the noise, it was unclear if there were any more taps.
