Impacts of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake had a deadly effect on the entire Sichuan region. The earthquake had a scale of 7.9, meaning it caused a very large amount of damage to the man-made environment. 97,150 people were killed and missing; a number so large that only the people who experienced it will really know how truly devastating it was. There were numerous daily aftershocks after the first earthquake. The earthquake had effects on people and cultural features, as well as impact on the economy and environment.
For the people of Sichuan and surrounding areas, this earthquake had a traumatic effect. Many school children were lost, as it was the middle of a school day when the earthquake struck. More than 14,000 classrooms were damaged. It was extremely upsetting for many parents who lost their child, as most of them only had one child due to the 'one child' policy in China. However, the government provided free aid for reversal of sterilisations to parents who lost their only child. Approximately 374,000 people were injured, and this exceeds the number of people injured in the large Haiti earthquake.
Many cultural features were damaged; as 80% of the buildings were destroyed. This is due to poor construction, and most deaths were caused by URMs (unreinforced masonry buildings) or lesser extent RCs (reinforced concrete buildings). The poor building construction left 4.8 million people homeless, which is the highest ever homeless count. Around 400 dams were also damaged in the earthquake.
The economy was highly impacted, due to the massive cost of the rebuild. $137.5 billion was spent by the government on rebuilding affected areas. It is estimated that 1.25 million animals (including livestock, poultry etc.) were killed, which means agriculture was also greatly affected.
Two chemical plants collapsed which lead to leakage of ammonia and sulphuric acid into the environment.