BEICHUAN, China — Flags flew at half-mast, public entertainment was canceled and 1.3 billion people were asked to observe three minutes of silence as China began three days of mourning today for the victims of the nation’s massive earthquake.
Officials asked for the horns of cars, trains and ships and air raid sirens to sound as people fell silent at 2:28 p.m., exactly one week after the quake splintered thousands of buildings and killed an estimated 50,000 people.
The Olympic torch relay is suspended during the mourning period, the organizing committee said.
Two rescues were reported today, and just three rescues were reported Sunday, including a woman in Yingxiu town who was reached by soldiers who dug a 15-foot tunnel through the wreckage of a flattened power station and had to amputate both her legs to set free, after 150 hours.
“She was in a delirious state” and told rescuers to leave her alone, thinking she was already in a hospital, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted rescuer Ma Gang as saying. “We fed her milk and water, and her family was there to reassure her.”
China also raised the magnitude of last Monday’s quake, to 8.0 from 7.8, though it did not give reasons for the reassessment and the U.S. Geological Survey kept its 7.9 measure. A magnitude-8 quake has the equivalent energy of 790 nuclear bombs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Dozens of aftershocks have rumbled through the region, extending the damage and fear of survivors. A magnitude 6 temblor on Sunday killed three people, injured more than 1,000 and caused further damage to houses and roads, Xinhua reported.
With more bodies discovered, the confirmed death toll rose to 32,476, the State Council, China’s cabinet, reported. The injured numbered more than 220,000.
Many bodies lay by roadsides in body bags or wrapped in plastic sheeting as authorities struggled to deal with the sheer number of corpses by digging burial pits and working crematoriums overtime.
The World Health Organization warned that shortages of clean water and warmer, humid weather in Sichuan province, which bore the brunt of the earthquake, were ripe for epidemics. Foreign aid continued to arrive, including two U.S. Air Force cargo planes loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals.
Responding to concerns about nuclear sites in the quake zone, a Chinese military spokesman said Sunday that all nuclear facilities jolted by the quake were confirmed safe. China has a research reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two atomic weapons sites within 90 miles of the quake’s epicenter, according to the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.
Flood threats from rivers blocked by landslides from the quake appeared to have eased after three waterways near the epicenter overflowed with no problems, Xinhua said.
Worries about possible flooding had sent thousands of people fleeing the day before.
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