Soldiers search wrecked villages buried by quake

MIANYANG, China - Soldiers who hiked over landslide-blocked roads to reach the epicenter of China's devastating earthquake searched through collapsed buildings Wednesday for survivors, with the death toll of more than 12,000 certain to rise as the buried are found.
Tens of thousands of homeless in wrecked towns across hilly stretches of Sichuan province spent a second night outdoors after Monday's 7.9-magnitude quake China's deadliest in three decades some sleeping under plastic sheeting, others bused to a stadium in the city of Mianyang, on the edge of the disaster area.
Price gouging also was seen in Mianyang. A package of instant noodles normally selling for 2.5 yuan (35 cents) now costs 8 yuan (US$1.15; Ð.74). In stores that were open, prices appeared to have doubled.
The road north from Mianyang to Beichuan was blocked 20 kilometers (12 miles) short of the city.
In an indication of how serious the destruction was in Beichuan, the official Xinhua News Agency said it was in desperate need of 50,000 tents, 200,000 cotton-padded quilts, 300,000 cotton-padded jackets, plus food, drinking water and drugs."
Both places are in a triangle area close to the epicenter of the quake just north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.
Along the road, people had gathered outdoors after the roofs of their houses had collapsed, with the luckier ones huddled under plastic sheets strung up between tree branches.
State television Wednesday broadcast touching scenes of Premier Wen Jiabao at the Mianyang stadium comforting children whose parents were killed in the earthquake.
The government will take care of you. The government will take care of your livelihood, your studies," Wen told a little girl who looked to be 9 years old.
This is a disaster. Since you survived, you must live your life well," Wen said to the girl, who cried and covered her face with one hand.
The industrial city of 700,000 people home to the headquarters of China's nuclear weapons design industry was turned into a thronging refugee camp.
I'm cold. I don't dare to sleep, and I'm worried a building is going to fall down on me," said Tang Ling, a 20-year-old waitress wrapped in a borrowed pink down jacket and camped outside a restaurant with three co-workers. What's happened is so cruel. In one minute to have so many people die is too tragic."
Wednesday was also expected to bring another jump in the death toll as a first wave of 200 troops searched the town of Wenchuan, near the epicenter, after trudging across ruptured roads and mudslides, state television said. Initial reports from soldiers said one nearby town could account for only 2,300 survivors out of 9,000 people, China Central Television said.
The death toll as of late Tuesday was at least 12,012 deaths in Sichuan while another 323 died in five other provinces and the metropolis of Chongqing. Up to 18,000 people were believed trapped in rubble, most in Beichuan.
The military said it was planning to air drop aid to Wenchuan. Once the weather is OK, the army will start dropping food and medicines to the town," Li Shiming, commander of the Chengdu Military Area Command, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Buses carried survivors away from Beichuan, which was flattened a few buildings standing amid piles of rubble in a narrow valley, according to CCTV video.
More than 10,000 people from there and surrounding areas packed Mianyang's Jiuzhou Gymnasium, with empty water bottles, boxes of instant noodles and cigarette cartons littering the ground.
The government's high-gear response aimed to reassure Chinese while showing the world it was capable of handling the disaster and was ready for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics in Beijing.
Although the government said it welcomed outside aid, officials said it would accept only money and supplies, not foreign personnel.
Wen, the premier, crisscrossed the disaster area to oversee relief efforts, while Xinhua said the Defense Ministry had sent 20,000 soldiers and police into the disaster area, with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, truck and on foot.
The Finance Ministry said it had allocated US$123 million in quake aid.
At Wolong National Nature Reserve, all 86 pandas were reported safe late Tuesday in the first word since communications with the preserve were cut off. A group of 31 British tourists panda-watching in the preserve also returned safely to Chengdu, the Foreign Ministry said, although there was no word on 12 missing Americans on a World Wildlife Fund tour.
In the town of Juyuan, close to Chengdu, weeping parents held a vigil in a steady outside a collapsed school, where more than 900 high school students were initially trapped. Only one survivor has been found: a girl pulled free by rescue team.