Update (1) from China Earthquake Administration, Request for Sat Imagery

The following situational updates have come in from the Director (Mr Huang Jianfa) & Deputy Director (Ms. Hong Chen) of the CEA (China Earthquake Administration):

The communication and the transportation in the affected area have been interrupted. National disaster assessment teams and the national USAR team (CISAR), plus local USAR teams and other relief teams are moving to the affected area. Up to now, we are still in the stage of disaster information collection.

1. Communications with the earthquake affected area are cut off so information is hard to come by.
2. The area is quite mountainous with land lying at up to 3000 metres high so it is not as highly populated as other areas.
3. The main small town that they are concerned about and which they have no contact with yet is Wenchuan which has a population of 100,000 people and is approximately 30 km from the epicentre.
4. First reports from Chengdu are reassuring that there is not extensive damage.

Thanks to all of you who are paying attentions. We will provide further information when we get it.

A formal request for satellite imagery has been placed by CEA & ISAR team - SAR Ensa, to UNOSAT & other mapping agencies, however, at this moment the UNOSAT charter (GLIDE# EQ-2008-000062-CHN ) has not been activated yet. The CEA can be contacted via it's Deputy Director - Ms. Hong, on chenh AT cea.gov.cn or phone +86 13911732010



Tags: Asia / China,
Earthquake, Breaking News, Disaster, Emergency, Humanitarian, Relief, Rescue