The official death toll for the Chinese earthquake shot past 13,000 today and is expected to jump sharply after the full extent of the devastation is accounted for, Reuters reports. In one town with a prequake population of 12,000, only 2,000 survived; in all, 60,000 are missing in Wenchuan, the quake’s epicenter.
Chinese troops arriving in Wenchuan’s Yingxiu township found themselves unprepared: "They could hear people under the debris calling for help but no one could, because there were no professional rescue teams," a local official told state television. "What we most need is medicine. There is no medicine, there are no doctors and after such a long time, no food." (More China stories.)