Get those emergency supplies ready. Caltech scientists working with the United States Geological Survey have modeled the next big quake based on last week’s temblor in China. Here’s their scenario for a 7.8 magnitude event along the San Andreas fault in Southern California:

_10 a.m.: The San Andreas Fault ruptures, sending shock waves racing at 2 miles per second.

_30 seconds later: The agricultural Coachella Valley shakes first. Older buildings crumble. Fires start. Sections of Interstate 10, one of the nation’s major east-west corridors, break apart.

_1 minute later: Interstate 15, a key north-south route, is severed in places. Rail lines break; a train derails. Tremors hit burgeoning Riverside and San Bernardino counties east of Los Angeles.

_1 minute, 30 seconds later: Shock waves advance toward the Los Angeles Basin, shaking it violently for 55 seconds.

_2 minutes later: The rupture stops near Palmdale, but waves march north toward coastal Santa Barbara and into the Central Valley city of Bakersfield.

_30 minutes later: Emergency responders begin to fan across the region. A magnitude-7 aftershock hits, but sends its energy south into Mexico. Several more big aftershocks will hit in following days and months.

Major fires following the quake would cause the most damage, said Keith Porter, of the University of Colorado.

Here’s the latest quake map depicting western China

The Times found some Sichuan immigrants in the San Gabriel Valley who are anxiously awaiting word from their relatives in China’s Sichuan Provence, which was devastated by a 7.9 earthquake earlier this week.

But Monday’s earthquake has thrust a community used to being overlooked and misunderstood to the forefront of Southern California’s bustling Chinese American community. For the Sichuanese who gathered for lunch Thursday at Chung King restaurant in San Gabriel, it was a bittersweet experience.

“We feel extreme sadness,” said Tang, a nanny. “The only way Sichuan is being mentioned now is through this tragedy.”

It’s been a nightmarish week for the lunch group, many of whom met after overhearing one another speak Sichuanese at a supermarket.

The Chinese community in the United States was founded mostly by Southern immigrants from China’s coastal regions. That’s why the Cantonese and Taishanese dominated Chinatowns for decades. That changed with the influx of immigrants from Taiwan, then Beijing and Shanghai.

Though there are no statistics available, observers say Sichuanese immigrants began arriving steadily in the San Gabriel Valley in the 1990s. Many took the route of earlier immigrants by seeking jobs in restaurants or the import-export business. The number of Sichuanese living in Southern California is unclear because they lack the family associations and student groups that are ubiquitous with immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and areas of mainland China.

Elsewhere:

For the first time since 1949, according to Sina News (as translated by Google), China will accept help from other countries as it recovers from the quake:

After the disaster, many countries and international organizations issued statements one after another, the people of China expressed condolences, some countries have begun to China financial and material assistance. The international media also to China’s earthquake was significant, concern is comprehensive, and the first time for China immediately started rescue operations that respect.

May 13, the State Council Information Office held a news conference.  In the conference, the Ministry of Civil Affairs disaster relief Secretary, said Wang Zhenyao, China is very grateful for the generous assistance of the international community, will accept donations of time and timely delivery of disaster areas.

Finally, here’s a translated blog from Sina.com that points to Google maps, and other information from the quake zone

I’ve bee surfing the web today to see how much information is able to flow out of China in the wake of the devastating 7.9 magnitude quake that shook Chengdu Province this week.

The raw news and photos are grim:

AP is reporting that as many as 12,000 are now dead and 20,000 are missing.

Here’s some Chinese media reports via Google translator. 

Here’s a page of video images from near the epicenter.

Emergency.com reports.

What about the Pandas?