Thousands flee China quake area over flood fears

DONGHEKOU, China (AP) — Two rivers blocked by landslides threatened to floodtowns shattered by China's massive earthquake, sending thousands ofsurvivors fleeing Saturday in a region still staggering from the country'sworst disaster in 30 years.
A mountain sheared off by the mighty tremor cut the Qingzhu river andswallowed the riverside village of Donghekou whole, entombing an unknownnumber of people inside a huge mound of brown earth.
Compounding the horror for survivors, a lake rising behind the wall ofdebris threatens to break its banks and send torrents cascading intovillages downstream.
Pannicky residents streamed out of the entire county on the northern edge ofthe quake zone, spurred on by mobile phone text messages sent en masse bylocal government officials warning that the water level was rising andpeople downstream were being evacuated.
In the town of Beichuan, 60 miles to the south, thousands fled as thereports circulated.
Also on Sunday, a "slightly bruised" man was pulled out alive from acollapsed hospital in Beichuan after being trapped for 139 hours after thequake, a state news agency reported.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Tang Xiong was pulled to safety fromthe collapsed hospital in Beichuan in the northern part of Sichuan province.
It said Tang "was only slightly bruised and in his right senses" when he wasfound.
Xinhua also said a second man was rescued from a different building inBeichuan about eight hours before Tang. It said the survivor, Wu Jianping,had been taken to hospital. His condition was not known.
Rescue work had been resumed later in the day and experts were monitoringthe river above Beichuan, the People's Daily newspaper said on its web site.The swift exodus underscored the jitters running through the disaster zone.A strong aftershock — the second in two days and measured by the U.S.Geological Survey at magnitude 5.7 — shook the area early Sunday for 45seconds, causing people to run into the streets.
In all the devastation wrought by the quake, little looks as bleak asDonghekou.
The road to the village ends in a tangled twist of metal and tar. In thesmall valley below, the village itself has disappeared when the mountaincollapsed. Locals said two other villages further upstream, Ciban andKangle, had suffered the same fate. The three villages were home to about300 families, locals said.
Eerie and still, the remaining landscape has few signs of human life — asoiled green floral scarf, a rubber pipe, a log.
"Oh God! I have lost everything," said Wen Xiaoying, 32, whose voice shookas she surveyed the valley below for the first time since returning fromfar-off Guangdong province where she worked.
She held up one hand as she ticked off the family members that died — herfather, her mother, her sister and her brother-in-law — all of them buriedsomewhere in the muck before her.
"When I saw them the last time, we celebrated together," said Wen, a glimmerof a smile showing through as she remembered happier days. "I didn't expectit would be the last time I saw them."
Su Ciyao trudged over the bend in plastic slippers, carrying a plastic ricebag stuffed with salvaged clothes.
"My village is over there," the 44-year-old said, gesturing to the swollenearth behind him. Asked where his family was, he could only shake his head.
"Only me," he said, and then set off without a backward glance.
Drizzling rain in the valley added to the gloom, and to the fear of carloadsof people who clogged the twisting mountain roads as they streamed out ofthe region.
The government's daily update added another few thousand bodies to the deathtoll as it continued climbing toward an expected final tally of at least50,000. Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said 28,881 deaths have been confirmedso far.
The official Xinhua News Agency, citing regional officials, said more than10,600 people were known to be still buried almost one week after the 7.9magnitude quake hit, shattering thousands of buildings in dozens of townsand cities in Sichuan province.
A group of about 15 people surrounded an Associated Press reporter at agasoline station in Miangyang city Sunday, appealing for help for theirvillage, Xiushui.
"The government is doing nothing to help us," said one man who identifiedhimself only by his surname, Chen. "If I gave you my complete name thegovernment would track me down."
He said Xiushui was about 12 miles from Mianyang, which is north of Chengdu.Chen did not say how many people lived there, handing over a note which saidit had been signed "by the people of Xiushui."
"Please go to our village of Xiushui to cover the situation. The governmentis doing nothing to help us get water or housing," the note said.
More than 200 rescuers from Japan, Russia, South Korea and Singapore aresearching alongside Chinese soldiers.
More international aid was arriving, with a U.S. Air Force cargo planeloaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals landing Sunday in the Sichuanprovincial capital of Chengdu.
"We are extending the helping hand of a friend to you in the aftermath ofthis terrible earthquake," U.S. Gen. Charles Hooper said.
The number of security forces helping victims rose to almost 150,000, andthe government added cash payments to victims to its response.
The government would give $715 in compensation to each family that lost amember in the earthquake, China National Radio reported Saturday on its website. At a State Council meeting hosted by Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing,the government also decided it would also hand out a daily ration of foodand $1.40 to survivors, the report said.
Almost a week after the quake struck, rescues were still occurring.
Rescuers pulled at least seven more survivors from collapsed buildings, thelast a man saved after 128 hours. Both of his legs had to be amputated.Another, 20-year-old highway worker Jiang Yuhang was pulled free shortlyafter his mother arrived from a neighboring province.
"I was expecting to see my son's body. I never expected to see him alive,"his mother, Long Jinyu, said on state television.
Experts say buried earthquake survivors can last a week or more, dependingon factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink,but that the chances of survival diminish rapidly after the first 24 hours.
Nearly a week after the quake, soldiers who first arrived with little butshovels were better supplied. In the town of Yinghua, rescuers workedthrough the day, using saws, drills, torches and hands, to free 31-year-oldBian Gengfeng from the wreckage of a six-story chemical factory.
A man rescued from the same site Friday told rescuers that he had beentalking with a woman still trapped, setting off Saturday's effort.
"Uncle called me yesterday and said 'mom was alive' and I should come andwait here," said 10-year-old Luo Ting, who watched her mother being rescued.
Xinhua said Russian rescuers had found a 61-year-old woman alive lateSaturday after being buried for 127 hours, the first survivor found byforeign workers.
"I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments and internationalfriends that have contributed to our quake relief work," Chinese PresidentHu Jintao was quoted as saying by Xinhua Sunday.