'Unspeakable Pain' at Collapsed School in China

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

One of the eyewitness accounts of this disaster comes from NPR's Melissa Block. Yesterday she visited a school where hundreds of children are feared dead. Listeners to last night's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED got a sense of what that means.

MELISSA BLOCK: Tonight, there were dozens upon dozens of families going through this same grim ritual, their heads bowed in unspeakable pain as they sat vigil over small, lifeless forms. Many of these young victims would have been their parents' only children. And in row after row, their parents sat huddled through the rainy night keeping watch one last time over their babies.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

That's NPR's Melissa Block, one of two NPR correspondents who were in Southwest China at the time the earthquake struck. And you can read reports on this earthquake at NPR.org/chinadiary. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.