Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010
2008: Sichuan Province, China
Over 87,00 people died in China's deadly 2008 earthquake, and an estimated 10 million were left homeless. The 7.9-magnitude disaster struck the mountainous Sichuan Province in western China, destroying millions of buildings and causing an estimated $86 billion worth of damage. Nearly 10,000 children died in schools — trapped under rubble when the buildings collapsed — leading to public outcry and a government investigation that found that as many as 20 percent of primary schools may have been shoddily constructed and unsafe. Grieving parents' initial calls for justice, however, have been silenced to a large extent by intimidation and alleged payoffs.