This was a very powerful quake, but it was centered a considerable distance from Chengdu, so the death toll seems a bit outsized, unless many of the buildings weren't built to withstand the shaking, which seems likely.Poorly managed responses to disasters (comingled with authoritarian hubris) are the things revolutions are made out of . . .(and for some info from the USGS, here is a link to a 6 min