China Earthquake Today: The Aftermath in Pictures

Rough Rescue After China Earthquake

Photograph by Jia Xiaoyun, Color China Photo/AP

Rescuers in China's Yushu County try to pull a survivor from a building destroyed by the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Qinhai Province on April 14, 2010 (map showing Yushu, China). The Chinese government is sending roughly 5,000 soldiers, medics, and other rescuers to Qinghai, state media reported.

As rescue operations get underway, Qinghai's remoteness and relative poverty are daunting. "Nearly all the houses made of mud and wood collapsed," Yushu Hotel manager Ren Yu told the Associated Press.

Lacking excavators, workers are painstakingly dismantling the piles of mud, wood, and cinder blocks by hand. And relief flights are obliged to carry extra jet fuel to add to the Yushu airport's scant supply.

"The most important thing now is that this place is far from everything, with few accessible rescue troops available," local Chinese Army officer Wu Yong said on state television, according to the New York Times.

(Video: Earthquake 101.)

Published April 14, 2010

Earthquake-Ravaged Homes

Photograph by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

After an April 14, 2010, earthquake in Qinghai Province, China, a lone building stands above the poles, mud, wood, and cinder blocks that once made up part of Yushu County's building stock.

Now homeless, many earthquake victims settled in for a subfreezing Wednesday night on the Tibetan Plateau, sometimes called the roof of the world. The plateau includes most of Qinghai Province and sits about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) above sea level.

The provincial government today announced an emergency shipment of 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets to Qinghai, the Associated Press reported.

(See pictures of the Tibetan Plateau, site of the China earthquake today.)

Published April 14, 2010

A Lama Amid Earthquake Debris

Photograph by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

A Tibetan Buddhist monk in Yushu County surveys the debris of the Chinaearthquake on April 14, 2010, in Qinghai Province, where most of the residents are ethnically Tibetan. (Related: Digital Music Project Races to Save Tibetan Folk Songs.)

Home to historic Buddhist monasteries, Yushu was among the ethnically Tibetan regions that erupted in anti-government protests in March 2008.

Shortly after the earthquake today, Chinese state TV was quick to announce that the military had locked down the region's banks, storehouses for explosives, and oil supplies, according to the Associated Press.

(See "Tibetans: Moving Forward, Holding On.")

Published April 14, 2010