China quake prompts local efforts to help out

As news of the earthquake in China broke on Monday, local Chinese and other area residents with ties to the country responded quickly.

Jimmy Chen, a businessman in Puyallup and co-chairman of the Washington State-Sichuan Province Friendship Association, was trying to organize a team of disaster-relief experts and rescue dogs to leave possibly as soon as today.

Washington state has had a sister-state relationship since 1982 with Sichuan province, where the quake struck.

Gov. Christine Gregoire urged Washington residents to help.

"Last year, I had the honor of hosting a delegation from Sichuan on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of our sister-state relationship," Gregoire said in a statement. "Even though the earthquake victims are half a world away, they are also our neighbors."

The mega-city of Chongqing, where deaths were reported, is sister city to Seattle.

Yunbo Deng is a board member of Chinese Microsoft Employees, a group of about 2,500 people, many from mainland China.

The group is hoping the company can match donations of aid from employees, and hopes to partner with other local organizations to help.

On Monday morning, Lu Zhao, a program manager at Microsoft, talked to her parents in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Her father, a university professor, told her most students had been evacuated from the dormitories, and her mother, a doctor at a hospital, said patients had been moved outside of the hospital.

Both Zhao's parents were OK. She had been more concerned about her grandmother, who lives in a fifth-floor apartment.

"I worried about her — how she would get out," Zhao said. Zhao's aunt later found her at a nearby park.

Other organizations also are helping:

Both Federal Way-based World Vision and Portland-based Mercy Corps are providing disaster-relief assistance.