GUIXI TOWNSHIP, China (CNN) -- More than 18,000 people are reported buried under rubble in just one earthquake-hit city of China as rescue teams battle through power cuts, mudslides and heavy storms in desperate efforts to reach them. The official death toll has now exceeded 12,000, according to official state media.
Rescuers pull a woman out from rubble at a school Tuesday in Juyuan, China.
An injured man stands outside his destroyed home in the town of Hanwang Tuesday.
Chinese state media, Xinhua News Agency, reported Tuesday that 18,645 people are under rubble in the city of Mianyang, which neighbors the epicenter of the earthquake.It also reports that 3,629 people have died in the city.The government had earlier Tuesday announced a death toll of 11,921 for Sichuan, the surrounding provinces and the city of Chongqing.A string of nearly 30 seismic jolts hit the province in the first 24 hours following Monday's quake and slowed the progress of 1,300-strong rescue teams. All of those quakes were magnitude 4.0 and above.A Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry official said his country welcomes foreign donations of money and materials, but it is not ready for outside teams of rescue and relief workers because its transportation system could not handle the additional traffic.Roads blocked by rocks and mudslides had hampered the effort to reach the epicenter in Wenchuan County, forcing military doctors and soldiers to walk to reach the area almost 24 hours after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook central China, Xinhua said.Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao ordered the military to make it a priority to open the roads into Wenchuan County, home to about 100,000 people, by mid-day Tuesday. The premier arrived in the earthquake zone Monday to personally direct the relief efforts.Several thousand additional soldiers should reach the area later Tuesday afternoon, Xinhua said.Heavy rains forced the military to cancel plans to drop Chinese People's Liberation Army paratroopers into the Wenchuan area, Xinhua said. Bad weather also has grounded all helicopter relief efforts, the military said.CNN's John Vause saw block after block of devastation in the town of Jiang You, about 60 miles (100 km) from the epicenter, arriving there about a day after the quake hit.
Watch a report on misery inflicted by the quake »"These people who live in the city are now hunkering down under tarpaulins and under tents," Vause said, as a steady drizzle added to the misery. "Many are afraid to go back indoors because their buildings are no longer safe."Communications with survivors near the epicenter has been difficult because of broken telecommunication lines and poor weather. An official using a satellite phone did give an initial report that about a third of all buildings had collapsed and another third were seriously damaged, Xinhua said. Watch quake victim pulled out of rubble »In Guixi Township --35 km (22 miles) from the epicenter -- thousands of residents huddled under makeshift tents and tarps, their only shelter from a steady rain Tuesday. Impact Your WorldRow after row of houses collapsed during the earthquake, leaving people with no place to go. Many injured and hungry people wondered the streets, creating a scene of human misery. The roads to the town are open, but still no relief workers were around.An expert told CNN the earthquake, which struck at 2:28 p.m. (2:28 a.m. ET) Monday, was the largest the region has seen "for over a generation."The area is also the refuge for much of China's panda population. The fate of the 130 pandas housed at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center was unknown, Xinhua reported.
Watch a report on misery inflicted by the quake »"These people who live in the city are now hunkering down under tarpaulins and under tents," Vause said, as a steady drizzle added to the misery. "Many are afraid to go back indoors because their buildings are no longer safe."Communications with survivors near the epicenter has been difficult because of broken telecommunication lines and poor weather. An official using a satellite phone did give an initial report that about a third of all buildings had collapsed and another third were seriously damaged, Xinhua said. Watch quake victim pulled out of rubble »In Guixi Township --35 km (22 miles) from the epicenter -- thousands of residents huddled under makeshift tents and tarps, their only shelter from a steady rain Tuesday. Impact Your WorldRow after row of houses collapsed during the earthquake, leaving people with no place to go. Many injured and hungry people wondered the streets, creating a scene of human misery. The roads to the town are open, but still no relief workers were around.An expert told CNN the earthquake, which struck at 2:28 p.m. (2:28 a.m. ET) Monday, was the largest the region has seen "for over a generation."The area is also the refuge for much of China's panda population. The fate of the 130 pandas housed at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center was unknown, Xinhua reported.President Bush said the United States is prepared to help China "in any way possible" in the quake's aftermath.A top U.S. aid official said Beijing had not yet requested assistance.The United States has search-and-rescue teams standing by in Virginia and California, said Ky Luu, the director of foreign disaster assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development.Luu said Beijing has good disaster-response mechanisms of its own."The Chinese have a strong capability of responding," he said, adding that the United States doesn't want to displace the internal expertise. "There is a 72-hour window of opportunity and it may be best to support regional teams on the ground."Some 20,000 Chinese troops have been deployed to the region, while another 24,000 are scheduled to be airlifted to affected areas, Xinhua reported. Another 3,000 police officers have been activated."It looks like they've mounted a pretty monumental effort to do the best that they can there," said Kate Janie, director of Mercy Corps, a humanitarian group channeling disaster aid to the region through a partner agency. "I think the Chinese government will make very active, proactive, transparent steps in dealing with this."Zhenyao said 60,000 tents and 50,000 quilts have been dispatched to the disaster zone.Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport reopened Tuesday after authorities inspected its runways for damage following the quake, Xinhua reported. The resumption of air service gives the province additional links for funneling supplies into the badly battered region.A 40-car freight train, carrying 13 tankers full of gasoline, derailed and caught fire Monday in Gansu province, officials said, according to state-run media, cutting the Baoji-Chengdu railway. Monday's quake shook the ground in Beijing, 950 miles (1,528 km) away. Residents of the capital, which hosts this year's Olympic Games in August, said they felt a rolling sensation that lasted about a minute. It resulted in the evacuation of thousands of people from Beijing buildings.
