Survivor: Chinese cruise ship capsized quickly during violent storm
Most of the passengers on the Eastern Star cruise ship had gone to bed. A
violent storm struck and rain pounded the windows with such force that water
seeped into the cabins, survivor Zhang Hui told Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.
The ship began tilting, Zhang told the agency, reaching an angle of 45
degrees at one point. Small bottles rolled off the table in his cabin.
"Looks like we are in trouble," he remembers telling a
colleague.
When the ship with more than 450 people aboard overturned late Monday, he
said, it happened so quickly he only had 30 seconds to grab a life jacket and
get out of his cabin. He went into the dark and choppy waters of
the Yangtze River during the middle of the
storm, later confirmed to be a tornado.
"The raindrops hitting my face felt like hailstones. I tried to hold
my breath, but water was forced into my mouth anyway," he told Xinhua.
Unable to swim, he hung onto the life jacket as he floated. He heard other
voices in the water, but they soon faded. He saw the lights of a boat, but it
passed, apparently not hearing his cries.
"Just hang in there a little longer, I told myself," Zhang said,
according to the news agency.
Hours later, around dawn, he floated to shore and crawled to solid ground.
He made it to a building, was taken to a hospital and called his family.
"I'm still alive," he told them, Xinhua said. His wife and
15-year-old son broke down upon hearing his voice, he said.
How did a river cruise capsize in China
— New Day (@NewDay) June 2, 2015
A massive rescue effort is underway to find anybody who might have
survived the capsizing of the Eastern Star. The ship was on a pleasure cruise
along a stretch of the Yangtze that winds through central China 's Hubei
The other passengers and crew were feared trapped inside the ship, CNN's
David McKenzie reported from the scene. Divers were combing compartments
on board, Xinhua reported Wednesday morning.
The survivors included the ship's captain and chief engineer, who were
taken into custody for questioning.
On scene of river cruise disaster in #china. Weather is
hampering search and hundreds still missingpic.twitter.com/QcWfDP6Zxo
— David McKenzie (@McKenzieCNN) June 2, 2015
Video showed the rescue of an elderly woman who surfaced near the hull
wearing a diving mask. Holding a rope, she walked up the hull into the arms of
rescuers.
Divers plunged into the river and rescue workers gathered along part of
the vessel's upturned hull that was sticking out of the water.
They used hammers to knock on the body of the ship, which was almost
submerged, and heard responses from inside, a state-run local newspaper
reported. Welders used blowtorches in an attempt to cut the hull open.
More than 1,000 armed police officers, equipped with 40 inflatable boats,
were participating in the rescue effort, Xinhua said. Rescue efforts continued
into the night.
Images of the upended ship evoked memories of the Sewol, the South
Korean passenger ferry that sank last year, taking the lives of more
than 300 people, most of them high school students. The captain of that ship was convicted of murder in April
and sentenced to life in prison.
In this case, the majority of the 405 passengers on the cruise were
between 50 and 80 years old, according to a list published by state media. The
youngest was 3.
There were also 46 crew members and five travel agency workers on board,
according to state media. All those on board were reported to be Chinese.
Unless many more people are rescued, the Yangtze River sinking will become
the deadliest passenger ship disaster in Asia
since the Sewol went down.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/02/asia/china-yangtze-river-ship-sinking/
Structure of the Lead：
- Who: Zhang Hui
- When: not given
- What:not given
- Why: A violent storm struck and rain pounded the windows with such force that water seeped into the cabins
- Where: not given
- How: not given
Vocabulary:
- cruise (v.) 航遊於
- choppy (adj.) 波掏洶湧的
- capsize (v.) 翻覆
- unaccounted (adj.) 行蹤不明的
- compartment (n.) 間隔
- submerge (v.) 淹沒 覆蓋
- blowtorch (n.) 小型發焰裝置(焊接用)
- evoke (v.) 喚起 激起
- inflatable (adj.) 膨脹的
- rescue (v.) 援救
It is a threatened thing to me. There are a lot of people died in the incident. Some of them are someone's parents, others of them are someone's daughters and sons. If the government rescued more easily,maybe it would more people survive.
回覆刪除The capsizing of ships are always the most sorrowful and heartbreaking news to see. Sometimes people aboard are just excited to start a relaxed vacation, sometimes they wish nothing but hold a slight hope to head for a better place that they can live a carefree life. It's just too sad to see the news with so many people engulfed by the ruthless sea.
回覆刪除