11.   Rain had poured in, snapping roof beams and rotting away floors.

12.   The roof beams were all hand hewn and joined on the site.

13.   The Yangtze River and its tributaries reached flood levels in mid-July, and the lucky ones had time to empty their farmhouses before water rose to the roof beams.

14.   They were reinforced with steel roof beams, brick walls and, in most cases, concrete floors.

15.   Vulcraft of Fort Payne, Ala., is investigating its welding of the roof beams, and Helmark Steel of Wilmington, Del., is revising its installation procedure.

16.   Houses have been demolished, their skeletons picked clean of scrap metal, bricks, roof beams and other reusables.

17.   In the towns and villages huddled in the valleys, Buddhist good luck symbols adorn window frames and roof beams and often the white stone walls.

18.   The walls and roof beams came crashing down on Isao Kadoi as he was working before dawn at his newspaper delivery shop.

19.   The roof beams were dove-tailed without nails and painted in a hammerhead shark scroll, bringing together Maori and Christian design.