Why we needed your help in China
| On 12 May 2008, a major earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale devastated eight provinces in China: Sichuan, which was the most severely affected, along with Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou and Hubei. | | |  | |
| Aftershocks continued, with another earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale occurring on 20 February 2009 in Xinjiang.
The British Red Cross launched an appeal on 14 May 2008 to support the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s response to the earthquake. Thanks to the generosity of everyone who donated, the appeal raised £4.8 million.
The earthquake was the worst to hit China since 1976 and tremors were felt as far as Bangkok, some 3,330 kilometres away.
The consequences were devastating:
- Around 375,000 injured
- More than 87,000 people killed
- Some 5,500 children became orphans
- More than 15 million people displaced with five million homeless.
In some towns, 80 per cent of buildings, including schools, hospitals and factories, were reduced to rubble. With health facilities and infrastructure destroyed, the World Health Organisation warned that warm, humid weather and shortages of clean water create serious risk of epidemics.
More about the China earthquake | |
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