May 15th, 2008 14:59:42, BlogChina ,by Cong You,
I finally just got in touch with a friend, a reporter who once interviewed me, in Sichuan. She had just came back from Mianzhu. This petite girl told me the situation by phone, which she saw with her own eyes. She summed it up in one phrase: the end of the world.
She said she almost could not work, and the tears would not stop. It was too miserable. Debris scattered everywhere. The rescuers were searching for people frantically but usually could do nothing much help. The photographer with her just took one photo before putting the camera aside to join in the rescue effort. It was a situation where anyone could not just stand aside and watch on idly.
She told me one scene she would never forget the scene at the site of one school. The main building had collapsed when the earthquake struck. As it was class time, more than 100 primary school students were buried below. Rescuers saved less than twenty children and pulled more than thirty bodies from the rubble. Seeing the little bodies of such young children who would never open their eyes again, she said she suddenly lost the courage to speak.
However, during the key point of the rescue effort, an aftershock struck, and the rubble shifted. As the rescue team had utilized a crane to shift away some larger pieces of debris, the ruins could collapse again at any time. It was too dangerous to enter the ruins and the rescue team could very well lose their lives. The captain ordered the rescuers to immediately evacuate, and wait for the rubble to stabilize. But some rescuers emerged from the ruins, yelling that they had just found some children.
At that, a few rescuers were about to rush in without a second thought. Just at that point, a huge concrete slab shifted and was about to fall on them. The rest of the rescue team held on to them, stopping their rush into the rubble. As the rescuers were hauled out of the danger zone, a rescuer who had just carried a child out of the rubble fell to his knees, crying and pleading with the rescuers holding him back. "Please let me go back in! Please let me save one more! I can do it!"
This brought tears to everyone at the scene. There was nothing they could do but looked on helplessly as the ruins collapsed again. Finally, the children were dug out from the rubble, but only one girl was alive. Watching the young rescuer carrying the girl, shouting and running in the rain towards the medical tent, my friend was crying so hard she could not speak.
I was unable to imagine how this devastating scene, sorrowful enough as a tale, would play out before my eyes. I just know that it did happen, and now across the areas struck by this earthquake, similar scenes are replaying themselves over and over again. In this night, as I sit here in my comfortable room, it struck me for the first time that I should do something. Even though I am unable to be at the frontline, is there anything else I can do for them?
Thus I wrote this blog entry with tears in my eyes. I know one blog entry would be of little practical use to them, but it is the fastest thing I could think of, the first thing I could do. One entry might not have much power, but I could at least draw more attention to the situation. There can only be more things to do after I accomplish the first, then the second, and the third...
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The above story is translated by some volunteers at
www.sichuan-earthquake.org
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