This is just so horrific, and in the wake of Myanmar too.

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) – The death toll in China’s earthquake climbed past 13,000 on Tuesday and looked set to rise much higher after media said some 19,000 people were buried in rubble in just one area.

Rain and severed roads hampered rescuers in the mountainous area near the epicentre of Monday’s 7.9-magnitude quake in the southwestern province of Sichuan, China’s worst earthquake in three decades.

State media reported devastation as troops reached stricken villages near the epicentre in Wenchuan, a remote county cut off by landslides about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Chengdu.

Officials announced late on Tuesday that 500 Wenchuan residents were confirmed dead, Xinhua news agency reported. But the toll there and elsewhere is likely to soar.

Thirty People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops arrived at Wenchuan’s Yingxiu township and rescued 300 residents, Xinhua said. But only 2,000 were found alive in the town of 12,000, according to a local official.

“They could hear people under the debris calling for help but no one could, because there were no professional rescue teams,” state television quoted the official He Biao as saying.

About 60,000 people were unaccounted for across Wenchuan.

“What we most need is medicine. There is no medicine, there are no doctors and after such a long time, no food,” He said.

In a school of 850 students in Qingchuan County, Sichuan, 90 were killed and another 191 were missing, a local official told Xinhua.

A further 18,645 people were buried under debris in the city of Mianyang, Xinhua said.

All those poor people. So many families will be left devastated for years to come after this. It doesn’t bear thinking about.