My heart and prayers go out to the people of China who are living through a nightmare. Over 9,000 dead, many missing, schools and buildings leveled. The magnitude has been increased by the USGS to 7.9.

The most compelling coverage I’ve found today comes from NPR. Melissa Block was interviewing the pastor of a church in Chengdu at the time of the quake. There’s a link to her audio feed halfway down the page. Farther down, there’s the heartbreaking description of her visit to Juyuan Middle School, which collapsed in the quake. You can also read other accounts on their Chengdu Diary.

Feelthecolorz has an incredible photo, and summary of what is known so far, including links to other sites.

Shanghaiist.com seems to be down, as a second earthquake hits close to the epicenter of the first.

More as I have it.

Click here for links to more info.

Technorati Tags: china, earthquake, video, citizen journalism

UPDATE 2:57AM PDT -

Great summary by @paulbradshaw of how the news broke and a list of all search, maps and active links to information about the earthquake.

Looks like CNBC is on it. (I no longer acknowledge CNN as a credible news source, but you might find info on that site as well.

UPDATE 2:09AM PDT -

Chinese state media reports 4 Students Killed
Aftershocks so far: 6.0, 5.4, 5.2, 5.2, 4.9
Reports of school collapse

At 11:28PM PDT, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Eastern Sichuan, China. I saw reports from people reporting a strong earthquake at 11:35pm PDT on Twitter, and a steady stream of reports has been flowing by since. (USGS info)

You can track chinaquake on Gtalk. Follow @inwalkedbud , @casperodj , and @turbotodd on Twitter for on-the-ground reports.

Other links of interest:

BBC: Twitter and the China Earthquake
First photos
WorldWide Help is LiveBlogging
Estimated population subjected to earthquake shaking
Google Map of Earthquake Region
Twitter search: Summize

Technorati Tags: china, twitter, chinaquake, sichuan, breaking news