China Quake and My Authors

The massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake in southwest China that killed at least 10,000 has me worried. China is home to 6 of the many authors for whom I do ESL (English as a second language) editing of the manuscripts that they want to submit to U.S. medical journals for publication.

I have e-mailed all of them expressing my concern and asking that they write back to tell me whether they and their family members and colleagues are okay. Their replies are starting to come in.

Baojun in Hebei (aka Hubei) writes:

It is indeed that our Chinese are suffering an very heavy situation. The earthquake happened in the 14:28 p.m., and at that time, we are working in the building. Our city is about nearly 1,000 km far from Wenchuan in the Sichuan Province, the center part of the earthquake. During the earthquake happens, we felt the building shaking, but it is not very terrible. It lasts for about 2 or 3 minutes. At that time, we all rushed out. Half an hour later, we returned to normal work, here in our city. We got the latest news that the death number is increasing; they mainly locates in south part of china. Our government are gaining all the Chinese's efforts to help the people in the center of the earthquake. I am heard that there are at least 10 medical rescue team and nearly 200 medical rescuers are sending to the earthquake center.

Ting-Ting in Shanghai writes:

The earthquake happened in the Sichuan Province, where is far from Shanghai, but some high buildings in Shanghai had some shake for several minutes. No any damages occured in Shanghai, while reported nearly 10,000 people died in the Sichuan Province. The damage and injury is believed more severe in the central site where the communication way had brokened.

I'm still waiting to hear from Hongliang and Ke-Rong in Shanghai, Yixin in Beijing, and Tak-Chuen in Honk Kong.


Updated 5/14/08 at 12:49 a.m.: If you would like to make a donation to assist survivors of the earthquake, you can do so by mailing a check to the American Red Cross, making sure to write China earthquake victims on the check's memo line. I spoke with a Red Cross representative yesterday by phone, and he said that it will be a few days before the agency can get set up for accepting donations made by credit card that are specifically intended for the earthquake victims. He asked that meanwhile, checks be mailed to this address:

MMMMMMAmerican Red Cross
MMMMMMP.O. Box 7089
MMMMMMWashington, D.C. 20090-7089


Updated 5/24/08, at 11:54 a.m.: Ting-Ting tells me that lots of his colleagues have traveled to the Sichuan Province to provide medical assistance to quake survivors. The death count is now at 80,000.


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