Soldiers carried older people out of Beichuan town, while survivors cradled babies on a road jammed with vehicles and people. The death toll jumped to near 29,000.

“Rescue officials were worried that water from the choked river would inundate the town,” said a police man.
“The river was jammed up by a landslide, now that may burst. That is what we are worried about,” the policeman said as he hurried by, not giving his name.

The Xinhua News Agency had said earlier that a lake in Beichuan county “may burst its bank at any time”, without giving details on why the water was rising. Residents left homes for higher ground, but 46 seriously injured were still at risk, the agency said. In what apparently was a similar landslide-blocked river, Xinhua said more than 2,000 people were being evacuated farther north near Qingchuan town, where blocked parts of the Qingzhu river formed a large stretch of water.

The confirmed death toll rose Saturday to 28,881, Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said. But more than 10,600 people remained buried in Sichuan province, the regional government said.

Continuing aftershocks made digging through unstable buildings dangerous. On Friday afternoon, an aftershock rattled parts of Sichuan, burying vehicles on a road leading to the epicentre, Xinhua said.

Rescue teams from South Korea, Singapore and Russia got to work Saturday. They joined a Japanese specialist group, which was the first international rescue crew to arrive in the disaster area after China dropped its initial reluctance to accept foreign personnel.

 A US Air Force cargo plane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals left Hawaii on Saturday, the first aid flight from the United States to help in Sichuan province.

One child policy
For many couples, who had decided to adhere to China’s one-child policy, lost their only child in the earthquake. Robbed of their sole progeny and a hope for the future, they find it even harder to restart their shattered lives, haunted by added guilt, regret and gnawing loss.