Rain and heavy storm on Tuesday impeded rescue efforts in the earthquake affected Chinese areas. Rescue workers sifted through tangled debris of toppled schools and homes for thousands of victims buried or missing after China's worst earthquake in three decades, where the death toll soared to more than 13,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone. Hope that many survivors would be found was fleeting. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told the official Xinhua News Agency. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings had been destroyed. Officials announced late on Tuesday that 500 Wenchuan residents were confirmed dead. But the toll there and elsewhere is likely to soar. State media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county, a day after the powerful 7.9 magnitude quake struck Monday afternoon, but the number of casualties there was still unknown. The quake was centered just north of the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu in central China, tearing into urban areas and mountain villages. Xinhua said more than 3,000 had died in Sichuan province alone, but difficulties in accessing some areas meant the total number of casualties remained uncertain. The number of victims was expected to rise, with 19,000 still buried in just the city of Mianyang near the epicenter, Xinhua reported. More than two dozen British and American tourists who were thought to be panda-watching in the area also remained missing. Some 20,000 soldiers and police arrived in the disaster area with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, truck and even on foot, the Defense Ministry told Xinhua. Rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings. Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in Chengdu.
