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Rescuers are racing against time to reach survivors a day after the strongest quake that hit China in more than three decades jolted the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The country was immersed in immense grief as the death toll rose to nearly 10,000. China’s English-language newspaper China Daily silhouetted the front page in black to mourn the victims. The headline reads: “The Day the Earth Moved.”

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Sichuan Monday evening, urged “calm, confidence and courage” in face of the catastrophe.

By 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, the death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake has climbed to 9,219, according to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs. Of the killed, 8,993 were in Sichuan.

Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the earthquake at western Sichuan province, has reported 57 confirmed deaths, and about 60,000 locals were still out of reach.

“I am so worried! I am so worried!” said He Biao, a government official with the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province, exclaimed to Xinhua over phone in an anxious tone. Wenchuan is part of the prefecture.

Wenchuan and neighboring areas were set amid steep hills north of Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu. Attempts to reach the epicenter “via land, air and water were all thwarted”, said an official with the Sichuan provincial relief headquarters, citing blocked transport, disrupted telecom and rainy weather as the key factors to hold back efforts to access the epicenter.

Premier Wen has ordered the removal of the rocks and mud slides that blocked the roads to the epicenter before 12 p.m. Tuesday.

“People are trapped in debris, we must treasure every second,” he told an emergency meeting at 7 a.m.

Read here for the latest updates. Below are some images of the devastation.

From AP news:

From CCTV:

A student at Sichuan University took this footage from his dorm room at 2:29 pm:

The blizzards that struck southern China in the past month have killed at least 107 people and left eight missing, as of February 12/2007, reported a senior Chinese official recently.

The disaster has also caused direct economic losses of about 111 billion yuan ($15.4 billion), Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju said: 21 provincial-level areas had been affected, with Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region the worst hit.

About 1.5 million people have been evacuated and more than 1.9 million travelers were stranded at some point.

The extreme weather affected close to 24.4 million hectares of farmland, with crop failure in 168 hectares of farmland, and led to the destruction of more than 350,000 homes; 18.6 million hectares of forest have been damaged in 19 snow-afflicted regions including Hunan and Hubei provinces.

The snowstorms, the worst in five decades and up to a century in some areas, caused deaths, building collapses, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop loss in the country’s eastern, central and southern regions for about a month.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday chaired an executive meeting of the State Council and warned of “arduous tasks” for the hardest-hit areas to recover.

“Some major power grids have yet to be repaired. The straining of coal supplies for electricity plants has not been fundamentally resolved,” Wen said at the meeting.

The premier urged local governments to put restoring power supply as the top priority. Local electricity networks should be repaired and work normally by the end of next month, Wen said: efforts should be made to mobilize and organize farmers to prepare for the spring farming season, as crops in most disaster-stricken areas will bear no harvest.

Meanwhile, production and transportation of coal for power generation should continue to be guaranteed, and efforts must be made to help victims, he said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered all of the country’s military forces to continue supporting reconstruction work in snow-hit areas.

The disaster is also testing insurance firms, which have paid out more than 1 billion yuan on claims (over 165 million US Dollars) stemming from the severe weather in south and central China, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said yesterday.

More than 855 million yuan were on property claims and more than 56 million yuan on health and life policies.

The power sector received about 254 million yuan and the farming sector 40 million yuan, the CIRC said in a bulletin.

Meteorologists forecast a warm-up for most areas south of the Yangtze River in the coming days, which could help the thawing of piled snow and ice.

Soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army de-ice
road surfaces along the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway
credits: Shanghai Daily

Weather conditions in southern China will remain severe and relief work difficult, Chinese leaders warned yesterday as the country battles with the worst snowfalls in decades.

The warning came after a meeting chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao to study the relief effort.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has just concluded his second visit in a week to central Hunan Province, the region worst hit.

Wen’s last stop, Chenzhou City, is still suffering power failures and a lack of running water.

Visiting homes of local residents who have had no water and electricity for 10 days, Wen said: “Please be patient. The situation will be better in a few days as the government is going all out to help you.”

A statement issued after the meeting said: “We have to be clear minded that certain regions in the south will continue to undergo icy weather caused by rain and snow and severe disasters will continue.”

“Relief work will remain very grim, posing a tough task on us,” it added. The statement noted that it remained a priority for the government to restore transport and power supplies and guarantee people’s daily needs.

The meeting urged local officials to make relief work a priority even though the transport and power supply problems in some disaster-hit regions have eased. The transportation authority will concentrate on helping stranded people on their way home, and the delivery of relief materials, daily necessities and coal to power plants.

China is facing its worst energy shortage in many years, with heightened demand caused by the intense cold and the snow, and insufficient coal supplies unable to keep up. After an energy shortage that has struck at least 13 provinces and reached about 70 gigawatts, approximately equal to the entire capacity of Great Britain, the government has ordered that coal be supplied first of all to the power plants.

Governments of all levels are told to crack down upon overcharging, especially on daily commodities such as rice, meat and cooking oil.

Chinese army sent out military vehicles, from tanks to armored cars, to clean the highways while the air force’s helicopters and transporters lifted relief material such as candles and quilts to several heavily-affected regions.

Some private companies yesterday donated more than 10 million yuan (US$1.36 million) to victims in affected areas.

And 65,000 medical workers are serving victims in the fields, according to the Ministry of Health.