40,000 Chinese Evacuated From Explosion 'Death Zone'

I didn't see this posted anywhere. Mods - please move if not LBN:

40,000 Chinese Evacuated From Explosion 'Death Zone'
By JIM YARDLEY

NY Times Published: December 27, 2003

WANZHOU, China, Saturday, Dec. 27 — Rescue workers continued to search for survivors and more bodies on Saturday after a poisonous cloud from a natural gas explosion left what state news media called a "death zone." More than 40,000 people were evacuated as witnesses described fields with the lifeless bodies of people and animals.

Evacuees were shown on state television crowding into emergency shelters throughout this mountainous section of southwestern China. Doctors at makeshift clinics, many of whom were brought from surrounding cities, were treating villagers who lived near the explosion site for poisoning, burns and respiratory problems.

The death toll early Saturday morning remained at 191, though that figure could rise as rescue workers search the remote terrain around the Chuandongbei natural gas field where the explosion occurred. A local health official said roughly 10,000 people had sought medical help. The official, Zheng Qingshu, said nearly 1,000 remained hospitalized, including 77 in critical condition.

<snip>

The explosion occurred Tuesday night near the town of Gaoqiao in Kaixian County, apparently after drillers at the natural gas field hit a pressurized deposit of gas and hydrogen sulfide, state media said. Initial reports played down the accident and cited only eight deaths. But by Thursday, officials were mounting a sweeping response as the death toll soared.

Article here: http://makeashorterlink.com/?S31E536E6

that there is a huge brown cast to the air that covers the whole country. They are going to find out the costs of modernization and their economic expansion. This is terrible, horrible news.

Many third world countries and those just startng to modernize have posed an interesting question. Much of the west(US,europe,etc) has gone through their period of "dirty" industrialization already on growing their economies. The west is already modernized and "rich" so we can impose our own sanctions on pollution without it being a serious detriment economically. But the poorer countries don't always have that option. They will have to grow much more slowly. Of course more safely, but still slower.

Grok

anyone in the drilling industry wants to talk about.

When there is some more-than-usual corrosive present in the drilling process (like C02), there is always the danger that the blowout preventer has not been trimmed in costly extra coatings to prevent just such as this.

But whatever, *Bush has assured that drilling is now invisible so on to ANWR. (After all, there is no scientific proof that H2S actually kills caribou, right?)