Landslide, Explosion Strike Shenzhen
In Shenzhen (which lies directly north of Hong Kong), a mound of soil and construction waste, piled against the side of a hill, gave way on Sunday. Official reports say that 91 people are missing after the disaster. At least 33 buildings were damaged.
A major gas pipeline in the area exploded at around the same time. The local government attributed the explosion to the landslide.
- Channel News Asia
- South China Morning Post
- NBC News
- Telegraph
- Bloomberg
- Reuters (video without narration)
- New York Times
- BBC
- China Economic Review
- iCrossChina
- CNN
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Landslide Swallows Block After Block of Shenzhen, China; 91 Missing
Russia Today reports:
A horrifying video of a landslide swallowing up the city of Shenzhen in southern China shows entire buildings being gobbled up in seconds. Meanwhile, the number of people missing has jumped to 91, China Central Television (CCTV) reports.
The disaster occurred in the Hengtaiyu industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Sunday morning [December 20], destroying a total of 22 buildings and causing a gas pipeline explosion.
[...] An area of about 1 million square meters has been buried in soil.
Al Jazeera reports:
The official Xinhua news agency [...] said 14 people had been rescued and more than 900 people had been evacuated from the site by Sunday evening.
Rescue operations were slowed by numerous obstacles, including continued rain, low visibility overnight, and mud, Ao Zhuoqian, a member of the Shenzhen fire brigade involved in on-site rescue, told Xinhua.
[...] The mud [...] was six metres deep in parts, state media said.
More than 2,000 rescuers with sniffer dogs and drones were sifting through rubble looking for survivors after the landslide left everything covered in mud, leaving only a surface of yellow sand visible, Xinhua said.
The accumulation of a large amount of construction waste meant that mud was stacked too steep, "causing instability and collapse, resulting in the collapse of buildings", the ministry of land resources said in a statement, referencing an investigation from provincial authorities.
A nearby section of China's major West-East natural gas pipeline also exploded, state television said, though it was not clear if this had any impact on the landslide.
[...] The frequency of industrial accidents in China has raised questions about safety standards following three decades of breakneck economic growth.
In one of China's worst landslides in living memory, more than 1,500 people died in 2010 when a barrage of mud slid down a mountainside into a town in the northwestern province of Gansu following torrential rain.
The Los Angeles Tines notes:
In 2008, a mudslide in the northern province of Shanxi, triggered by the collapse of a mining waste reservoir, killed 277.
Previous: Large Warehouse Explosions Injure 300-400 in Tianjin, China
Tianjin Explosions Update: Over 100 Dead; Company Abused the Law
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Breaking: Massive Explosions Rock China's Tianjin
At least two major explosions tore through Tianjin in eastern China on Wednesday night. According to Xinhua, the shockwaves from the blasts "were felt kilometers away" and shattered windows.
Chinese media reports indicated that the blasts occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time. People's Daily tweeted that the "quake" from the blast was "felt 10 km away." In a separate tweet, People's Daily cited the China Earthquake Network Center as saying that two explosions had occurred within 30 seconds, one magnitude 2.3 ML (or Richter magnitude) and [the] other magnitude 2.9 ML.
The number of casualties is still unknown; Xinhua's official report (issued at around 3 a.m. local time) noted "at least 50" people injured, while the official Twitter account of People's Daily said a local hospital "has received 300-400 injured." No deaths have been confirmed as of this writing, but two firefighters have been reported missing.
Update: People's Daily is now reporting 13 dead.
There were conflicting reports as to the cause of the blast. Initial speculation suggested the cause was gas or oil-related, possibly connected to the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tianjin. By around 3 a.m. local time, official Chinese media sources were reporting that the explosion started at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, where "dangerous goods" were being stored.
CCTV had the most specific information, citing the Tianjin Public Security Bureau as saying that the explosion occurred at the Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd, "which handles the transport of hazardous goods." Xing Zheming of CCTV America said the first explosion involved flammable materials; the second involved oil.
Update: People's Daily reports that a representative from Rui Hai is being questioned in connection with the explosion.
Common Dreams reports:
The death toll from this week's fiery explosions at the Chinese port of Tianjin climbed above 100 on Saturday, while confusion spread over whether authorities had ordered the evacuation of everyone within two miles amid fears of chemical contamination.
[...] Anti-chemical warfare troops have entered the site, according to the BBC.
[...] Two Chinese news outlets, including the state-run The Paper, reported that the warehouse was storing 700 tons of sodium cyanide--70 times more than it should have been holding at one time--and that authorities were rushing to clean it up.
Sodium cyanide is a toxic chemical that can form a flammable gas upon contact with water.
[...] "The company that owned the warehouse where the blasts originated, Rui Hai International Logistics, appears to have violated Chinese law by operating close to apartment buildings and worker dormitories", journalist Andrew Jacobs reports for [NYTimes] (paywall). "Residents say they were unaware that the company was handling dangerous materials."
About 6,300 people have been displaced by the blasts, with around 721 injured and 33 in serious condition, Xinhua news agency said. At least 21 firefighters are reported dead.
Related: Large Warehouse Explosions Injure 300-400 in Tianjin, China
For the adulterated baby formula abuses of 2008 (4 infants dead; 12,892 hospitalized), 2 people were executed. One wonders what will come of this case.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gravis on Tuesday December 22 2015, @04:29AM
this is why "relaxing" pollution and/or safety standards so that US companies can "compete" is a idiotic proposition.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2015, @04:38AM
This. The EPA and all the other Federal and state agencies in the US issuing regulations might make things difficult for corporations, but having no standards and letting businesspeople and bureaucrats do whatever the hell they want in the name of "more business and more jobs" is 1000 times worse.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Grishnakh on Tuesday December 22 2015, @04:13PM
Bullshit. We need to eliminate all these regulations because government can't do anything right. We need to trust the Invisible Hand, as it will protect us from anything like this. Companies which cause mudslides like this will simply go out of business because people will stop buying from them.
\s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2015, @04:46PM
Whenever someone whines about how hard it is to build things in the US and points to China as an example of what we used to be able to do, I point to stories like this as an example of why we don't do it that loosey goosey anymore.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2015, @08:30PM
It may be that safety standards exist but weren't enforced. The China Economic Review story says:
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday December 22 2015, @05:16AM
They were filling in an old rock quarry with mud from new construction sites. When it got wet from heavy rains, and the angle of repose fell, it all came down. Basic engineering failure.
I went digging for the exact location on Google Earth, and compared the pre-slide Google Earth to the current aerial photos.
These 90 people who are missing, are only those in the buildings near the end of the slide, as shown in this
shot: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03531/LANSLIDE_drone_2_3531849k.jpg [telegraph.co.uk]
What the news is failing to report is that two or three city blocks of buildings (33 in all, some several stories) were completely buried, and no one is even digging for those people. This death toll goes much higher. We'll probably never know.
(The building laying tilted over in the image above, was actually aligned 90 degrees to the way it sits now. It was knocked off its foundation, spun 90 degrees, and tilted on its side).
Google Map of the waste pile https://goo.gl/maps/W3Moo4NBVgS2 [goo.gl]
The flow went north west ward, and the tilted building is just near the lable "Changfeng Road" if you zoom in.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2015, @07:42AM
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/12/22/satellite-images-show-shenzhen-landslide-site-over-time/ [wsj.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2015, @03:24PM
Knock it off
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Was cute once, now it's just annoying.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 22 2015, @06:47PM
It's a page-break you dope.