As the toll from the 7.9-magnitude quake rises, the most vulnerable of the South Sound’s sister cities appears to be Jiangyou. It’s had ties with University Place for three years and has discussed establishing a trade office in UP.

Jiangyou is within 100 miles of the quake’s epicenter, said Ron Chow, a Lakewood businessman who works closely with local sister city delegations and goes to China four to five times a year.

Chow, a Hong Kong native, worked Monday to set up a local bank account to benefit quake victims and was settling details for a Saturday fundraiser.

“In UP, we have students coming over (from Jiangyou) every year,” said Chow, who said he hadn’t been able to reach any of the young people Monday, except once briefly by e-mail. “It just breaks my heart.”

Sister city relationships are usually founded on cultural and educational exchanges. In times of tragedy, they can also spur concern and giving to causes that otherwise seem remote.

On Monday evening, the University Place Sister Cities Association called an emergency board meeting to discuss what it might do for Jiangyou.

“We see them as our extended family,” said board member Lani Powell. “They’re in trouble, and we need to find out what they need and how we can help them, just like you do when you have a relative in another state who’s in trouble.”

Powell has hosted several students from a Jiangyou boarding school at her UP home the last two years – including a sleepover for all 13 kids the night the delegation arrived in July 2006.

“We have a real bond, a real friendship, with some of those people,” she said. “Many students called me their American Mama. When I visited Jiangyou (in October 2006), they gave me a high honor.”

UP Mayor Linda Bird has hosted five teenagers from Jiangyou at her home since 2005. One of the girls, Li Meng, still sends occasional e-mails.

For now, the slow trickle of information out of one of China’s most densely populated regions frustrates those who want to help.

“We don’t yet know the extent of damage in Jiangyou or the school there. We’re still in a ‘What can we do to help?’ mode,” Bird said. “As a mayor here, I’ve met the mayor there, and I’m thinking, ‘What are they having to deal with?’”

As China has opened up to the outside world, the exchange has increasingly gone both ways. Chow’s son, Ron Chow Jr., a 2004 graduate of Charles Wright Academy, spent three months in Jiangyou last summer.

Just three weeks ago, the elder Chow led a delegation to China that included mayors from Lakewood, Steilacoom and DuPont. They mostly toured Hainan province, the island off the southern coast where those three South Sound suburbs have sister cities. But they also traveled to Sichuan, the province shattered by Monday’s earthquake.

Lakewood Mayor Doug Richardson and DuPont deputy mayor Penny Coffey said they visited middle schools during a two-day visit to Jiangyou. On Monday, with hundreds of children reported buried in collapsed school buildings, it was hard not to imagine the worst.

Pacific Northwest cities can identify with the hazards of living in earthquake country. Richardson is in Maryland this week with more than 70 other officials from Pierce County, attending an emergency management institute sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Coffey noted that the February 2001 Nisqually Earthquake was centered near her city. “What do you do?” she said, shocked by Monday’s disaster. “It’s just mind-boggling that things would crumble like that.”

Washington state has had a sister state relationship with Sichuan Province since 1982. Gov. Chris Gregoire’s office said Monday that the bond has brought business, cultural and educational benefits to both sides.

The governor sent a condolence letter to the governor of Sichuan, according to a news release, and urged Washington residents to give to relief efforts.

“Even though the earthquake victims are half a world away, they are also our neighbors,” Gregoire said.

Matt Misterek: 253-597-8472

How to help quake victims

Bank branches: Make your check out to the University Place Sister Cities Association, designated for the China earthquake relief fund, and drop it at any branch of Wells Fargo Bank.

City halls: Checks can also be dropped off during business hours at Lakewood, University Place and DuPont city halls, and at the Steilacoom public works building.

Also in Lakewood: Volunteers will collect donations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at HomeScape Pro, located in the old Safeway building next to Lakewood City Hall.

World Vision: Call 1-888-56-CHILD or visit www.worldvision.org.

The Federal Way-based Christian humanitarian agency hasn’t been able to reach its staff members working about 125 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter because telecommunications systems there are down, a spokeswoman said Monday. The agency runs child nutrition, education and agricultural development projects.

World Vision has 730 staffers in China. It also has workers in Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand, who are on standby to help.

The News Tribune