On May 12, 2008, Sichuan province in China suffers the 7.9 earthquake, resulting in over 16,000 deaths and over 60,000 injuries (as of May 14). The relief effort is underway. The Chinese government is doing a great job in pulling together their resources to support the rescue/relief effort.

I am particularly impressed by the way the Chinese government is handling the public media and international support. The government is completely open about what is going. The official CCTVs are covering the disaster and rescue effort around the clock. Several unofficial camera phone footages are uploaded to Youtube and other video websites. This one is probably the most popular one.

The Chinese government welcomes international support. This is a stark contrast with the way the government handled SARS in 2003. I was in Beijing at that time, and I was not able to find out what was happening until the government released the information at the peak of the SARS epidemic in the early April (I believe it was around April 9th).

If you would like to support the relief effort, the best method according to NPR is to go through Red Cross, which already has relief works on the ground in China to help distribute relief aids. Currently, money is more needed than blood. Here is the donation page (click on the big red DONATE NOW):

http://www.redcross.org/news/in/profiles/Intl_profile_ChinaEarthquake.html