Gary reports on the China earthquake:

First---we are very lucky that the earthquake did not happen in our large city of 10 million people. Our 33 story buildings are not built for large catastrophes like a large earthquake and with the many 100s of skyscrapers in our city, we all have agreed this would be even more devastating.

My two partners who are from Sichuan (see the latest map on our blog for the relation to their cities and the epicenter) said today that they have had several phone calls from their friends but several they cannot connect with because the phones are down. They both have heard from their families but they all have several friends that are missing or have not been heard from. Within the past two days we have had several phone calls to our office from their friends and family that are in one of the hardest hit areas ( Wen Chuan city) they have talked about how bad the destruction is and how much help they need to quickly get more food and water and medical help there. And they continue to keep looking for survivors.

This is why we are so emotionally connected and have set up fundraising efforts with people in our city---people that we are connected to personally, like friends and family.

Two days ago the reports from the ground were that 20,000 people were dead and now today they have raised the estimates up to 50K because of so many people trapped or buried that the military and volunteers cannot get to.

There are many small towns in the area (about 60 cities) within 50km to 200km of the epicenter-- to gather all the information of people buried and dead is tough to manage the correct information. For example, there were 12 Americans out of contact or missing and today they were found. Also, the worst hit cities have 80% of the buildings destroyed. It looks like several Midwestern tornado ripped through the towns.

There has been a report of a group of Americans living in the area that have volunteered to help the victims. One was a doctor and he had given the media only his Chinese name. This tells me he has been in China for some time and knows the area well. Maybe he was in the area observing the Giant Pandas.

The most shocking thing to me is the graphic photos in the local newspapers. One photo shows the school kids that were crushed while taking an afternoon nap at school. There are many more schools that have fallen and volunteers and Military are trying diligently to get to the buried kids.
I can now understand why so many Chinese Nationals and westerners are coming together and donating time and money to the victims.


More tomorrow.