Migrants Worry Over Family In Sichuan
四川在外打工人员担忧家庭安危

上海的李素月（谐音）两年前离开四川，来到了一千英里外的上海在一家小饭店里工作。如今，在强地震袭击了她的家乡后，李素月极为担忧，无法工作。她已经屡次和家里取得了联系。
“前天，我爸爸打电话告诉我说他们都没事，”她说。“但现在我又联系不上他们了。我现在心里一团乱。”
近三十年来，无数农民工的辛勤劳动推动了中国经济的迅速增长。近2亿人从事着各项工作，包括建造道路和楼房，开发煤矿，炼钢以及操作各类生产流水线，包括销往世界各地的玩具，布料和电子产品。这些农民工中很大一部分人来自四川--据估计可能有600万到2000万人。就像李小姐一样，他们离开家乡前往较为发达的沿海地区--而现在有关发生了近三十年来最严重的自然灾害的报道让他们感到十分痛苦煎熬。
尽管他们发狂似的想要与家里取得联系，但是电话线路始终不通，手机信号基站的毁损都阻挡了他们的努力。大量的通信联系阻塞了有效线路。
肖福华（谐音）今年33岁，他的妻子和三个孩子所在的地区是四川省南部地区凉山，据说那里的受灾情况并不是很严重。他说至今他还没能和家里取得联系。
“人家告诉我说由于地震的缘故，四川完全没有信号，”肖先生说，他现在在天津当建筑工人，天津位于北京的东面。他每个月的薪水为120美元。“我从电视里知道了很多坏消息。我只希望他们都平安。虽然报道里说凉山的地震不是很严重，但我还是很担心。”
四川是土地肥沃，山川缭绕，位于中国的西南部，是中国最多农民工来自的地区。同时它也是大熊猫的故乡，拥有广袤的竹林，以川辣美食闻名于世。四川有着全国最复杂的地形，往西延伸至青藏高原，往北与土地贫瘠的甘肃省相邻。
四川也是亚洲建筑缺陷最严重的地区，导致它在地震中很容易受到损失。
中国领导人邓小平来自四川，他于上个世纪80年代推动了中国的经济发展，政府允许农村和郊区的贫困人口前往大城市和沿海地区在工厂和建筑工地工作。
数以百万的四川人离开了家乡，许多人背井离乡，住在狭小的居所或临时工棚里，为的是能赚到足够的钱衣锦还乡。
李波（谐音）今年21岁，2004年来到上海。他来自四川省的绵阳市，位于地震震中的东北方向。
他说他的母亲目前平安，但他们家的大多数房间都倒塌了--这座房子是他们家花了几千美元修建的。
然而，他的一个亲戚告诉他一个叫做白水的巨大湖泊已经完全消失了，显然是完全沉入地震的裂缝中，为此他十分担心。他想知道这是不是真的。
“可能这个湖泊永远就消失了。”他说。“这是一场灾难。人们本来可以在这里耕作的，但现在没有水了。”
张商海（谐音）是另一个21岁的来自四川的农民工。他说他已经和家人取得了联系，他们还没有一个在矿场工作的叔叔的消息，目前他们仍然受到余震的威胁。
“昨天我和家人打电话的时候，我听到那里雨下得很大，”他说。“我的叔叔告诉我每半小时就有一次余震，即使在安全的时候他的腿也一直在抖。”
陈阳于中国天津发布的报道。

SHANGHAI ? Li Suyue left Sichuan two years ago and traveled the 1,000 miles here for a job in a small restaurant. Now, days after the earthquake that struck her province, she is distraught, unable to go to work. She constantly tries to call home.
“The day before yesterday, my father called and said they are O.K.,” she said. “But now I cannot reach them again. My mind is totally a mess.”
For three decades, China’s explosive economic growth has been fueled by its enormous pool of migrant workers, perhaps as many as 200 million people who construct roads and buildings, lug coal, fire steel and operate the assembly lines that churn out much of the world’s toys, clothing and electronics. Among them are a huge but uncounted group from Sichuan ? estimated at somewhere between 6 million and 20 million. Like Ms. Li, they left to find work in wealthier, coastal, regions ? and are now tormented by the reports of the worst natural disaster to hit the country in more than 30 years.
Their frantic efforts to get word of their families are thwarted by downed telephone lines and disrupted cellular phone base stations. The surge in calls has locked up functioning lines.
Xiao Fuhua, 33, whose wife and three children are in Liangshan, an area in southern Sichuan Province that is not supposed to be hard hit, said he had been unable to reach his family at all.
“I was told there was no signal in Sichuan because of the earthquake,” said Mr. Xiao, who earns about $120 a month as a construction worker in Tianjin, east of Beijing. “I heard a lot of bad news from TV. I hope they are O.K. It’s said that the earthquake in Liangshan is not very big, but I’m still worried.”
No area of China has supplied as much labor as Sichuan, a fertile, mountainous region in the country’s southwest, home to pandas, bamboo forests, spicy cuisine and some of the country’s most difficult terrain, stretching west into the Tibetan plateau and north toward the arid lands of Gansu Province.
Sichuan also sits along one of Asia’s biggest tectonic faults, making it prone to devastating earthquakes.
When the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, a native of Sichuan, began pushing the country’s economic development in the 1980s, the government allowed poor people from farms and rural areas to move to big cities and coastal areas to work at factories and construction sites.
Millions picked up and left Sichuan. Many have lived for years in cramped dormitories or temporary construction barracks, separated from their families, hoping to make enough to return home.
Li Bo, 21, came to Shanghai in 2004. He is from the city of Mianyang in Sichuan, northeast of the earthquake’s epicenter.
His mother is safe, he says, but most of the rooms in his house have collapsed ? the house the family spent thousands of dollars improving.
But he frets over a report from a relative that a huge lake called the Bai Shui has completely disappeared, apparently sucked down into the earth’s crust after the quake. Could it be true, he wonders.
“Maybe the lake has disappeared forever,” he said. “This would be a disaster. The people would have grain but no water to boil things.”
Zhang Shanghai, another 21-year-old Sichuan resident working in Shanghai, said he had reached his family. They had not yet heard from an uncle who had been working in a mine, and they were still tortured by tremors.
“When I called my family yesterday, I heard the sound of heavy rain,” he said. “My uncle told me aftershocks are occurring every half hour and that his legs are shaking all the time, even in the safe periods.”
Chen Yang contributed research from Tianjin, China.