China Earthquake

Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

A 7.0 earthquake struck the mountainous province of Sichuan western China. As of now the death toll of the earthquake is at 156 and over 3,000 people have been injured. Officials expect the death toll to rise by the next day until reports come in from more remote villages. They also told the villagers to be on alert for any possible aftershocks or landslides. 8,000 soldiers were sent to the areas  that were affected most. To add to the tragedy, an army vehicle carrying seventeen soldiers slid off a cliff. One soldier died and three others were severely injured.
This earthquake reminded the Chinese about the devastating earthquake they had five years ago in 2008. That earthquake was about the same magnitude, however over 90,000 people died because of it. It is great to see that not as many people died from the same earthquake. This shows that the government learned from their mistake of being unprepared and prepared the civilians this time. The government had a much quicker emergency response plan which saved the lives of thousands of people. Villagers knew what to do and immediately ran outside to open areas which are safer than their homes.