Although thousands were evacuated from buildings in Beijing and Shanghai, for me the swaying ceiling lamps and window blinds (and my barking dog) were my only hints of the earthquake that hit eastern Sichuan province at 2:29 PM local time. Now we hear the temblor was 7.9 on the Richter scale and that state media are reporting that as many as 5,000 people were killed in a single county. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, 80 percent of the buildings collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province, with 900 high school students said to be trapped in the rubble of their building. The U.S. Geological Survey says it took place 93 kilometers (about 56 miles) northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.

Chengdu's a city of 10 million with all the tall buildings, crowded streets and dense urban malls that characterize modern Chinese metropolises. I've been trying to phone friends and sources in Chengdu and another Sichuan city, Mianyang, but so far no luck on either land lines or mobiles. According to its Web site, Chengdu's Shuangliu airport was closed temporarily for safety reasons after the quake.