14,866. That's the latest earthquake death toll, just reported by Xinhua. The enormity of this calamity is so staggering that the numbers (as reported by China's government and media) roll past as we struggle to comprehend them. For example:

    18,645 is the number of people who remained unaccounted for in Mianyang last night.

    3.46 million or more is the number of houses damaged.

    USD 120 million is the amount the central government said it was spending on rescue efforts.

    50,000 soldiers and armed police have arrived or are en route to the earthquake zone, while 18 helicopters dropped 12.5 tons of food and relief goods Tuesday. A dozen civilian passenger planes have been recruited by the People's Liberation Army to fly rescue and relief missions.

     At least 10,000 people are camping out at a fetid stadium in Mianyang, some sleeping on treadmills and exercise bikes underneath posters of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    80% is the proportion of buildings destroyed in Beichuan, leaving 3,000 to 5,000 dead and up to 10,000 injured.

    86 pandas were confirmed unharmed at the panda breeding center near the epicenter of the quake, according to Wolong National Nature Reserve officials who contacted colleagues by satellite phone. Thirteen panda cubs had been taken to safety.

    One minute is the moment of silence, commemorating earthquake victims, that marked this week's Olympic torch relay which has been scaled back in scope.  Chinese Netizens had raised an outcry -- accusing Games organizers of being "inhumane" -- after authorities insisted  on the day after the quake that the event would continue unaltered because "the epicenter is not on the route of the torch relay."

   Eight months is the term of pregnancy of a woman rescued alive from the rubble of a seven-story building in Dujiangyan; her televised rescue is becoming an icon of hope in the face of calamity.

   15 is the number of British tourists, apparently caught by the quake as they traveled towards the Wolong nature reserve, who walked out of the disaster zone unharmed.

   1000 students and teachers are considered dead or missing in a collapsed six-story high-school in Beichuan, east of the epicenter. The building is now a two-meter-high pile of debris.

    Meanwhile, there's been alot of coverage of the estimated 900 students who were in class when their school collapsed in Dujiangyan, one of the more accessible disaster areas up to now. This morning I talked with photographer Alan Chin who stayed in Dujiangyan last night. He spent alot of time in a crematorium now serving as a makeshift morgue. Here's what he told me:

      The crematorium had two big halls, each with 50 to 100 bodies wrapped in white cloth. Normally there would have been individual funerals, but there's no time for that now. People were looking for their relatives, opening the shrouds to study the faces, then closing them again. When people found a loved one among the corpses, they dressed their relative in clean clothes.

     PLA trucks kept bringing in more bodies wrapped in white. When I caught a glimpse of the faces of the victims I wasn't even sure of their gender, such was the force that had caused their deaths. It was a very somber scene, as you can imagine. In all, there were probably a couple hundred bodies in the place, with dozens of family members walking around. More people waited outside.

     Parents of the schoolchildren whose building collapsed were congregated at the site of the school. When rescuers extracted a corpse, it was given to relatives who burned incense and grieved on the spot. The crematorium was more a place for people to go when they didn't know where their missing relatives might be.

    There were alot of rumors floating around Dujiangyan, of reportedly poisoned water, of imminent aftershocks. This morning thousands of people were on the streets, walking around, many toting luggage. Some wanted to get food supplies. There were a few fruit vendors around. Some wanted to get out of Dujiangyan because their residences were damaged. They had nowhere to stay.