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September 30, 2016

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15 rescued from village landslides

Source: Xinhua | September 30, 2016, Friday | Print Edition

FIFTEEN people have been rescued, but 26 are still missing after landslides in east China’s Zhejiang Province on Wednesday, authorities said yesterday.

Bodies of a 60-year-old woman and a 6-year-old child were retrieved from debris last night, after heavy rain and wind spawned by Typhoon Megi triggered landslides at Sucun and Baofeng villages, in Suichang County, on Wednesday. Rescuers found another body yesterday afternoon.

Ten people are receiving treatment in hospital, according to a statement issued by the county government.

“Roughly 400,000 cubic meters of debris slid down the mountains and buried 20 houses. Seventeen other homes were flooded. A township official who went to help villagers is among the missing,” said county official Zhou Ruichen.

Sucun resident Zheng Quanwei, 56, was having dinner 200 meters from the scene when he heard a loud noise and ran outside. “It was getting dark, but I could see some collapsed houses on the hillside,” he said. “There were still some noises.”

Video footage from the scene shows debris cascading down the hill as people screamed in terror.

“The rocks were flowing down like water. I was running so fast that I even lost one of my shoes,” said 58-year-old Su Guohong. “There were five or six villagers running with me.”

Seeing the rocks rolling down the mountain, Pan Zhaoxiang abandoned her housework and ran up the mountainside with other villagers. They did not come down until 7:30pm.

“When I left my home, I saw two cars being washed into the river. Some people were shouting for help from the water. I am still scared now,” she said.

Su Yumin, 64, said he was cooking while taking care of his two grandchildren when he saw a huge rock tumble down.

“I took the kids out of the house. Now the whole family is safe, but 2 tons of rice we were drying outside has been lost,” he said.

Ye Qinxiang said: “We have 10 mu (0.6 hectares) of crops, but all our eggplant, bitter gourd and pumpkin were damaged.”

Many houses in the village were swept away and destroyed, and more than 1,400 residents have been relocated to safer areas.

The local government has mobilized more than 2,200 people, 180 excavators and other machines and emergency equipment for the rescue.

Heavy rain poured on rescue workers during the day in Sucun yesterday, but that had subsided in the evening.

Rescue workers in galoshes and hard hats walked the streets carrying shovels under bright floodlights, as earth movers carefully picked through the debris of collapsed homes.

Volunteer rescuer Du Jin said a barrier lake caused by a secondary landslide had hampered their rescue efforts. “We have to evacuate until the hazard is given the all clear,” he said.

Du said their team found three people buried in the debris of a razed house with life detecting equipment.

“The most urgent thing is to find them as soon as possible,” he said.

At the site of the disaster, rocks have continued to roll down the mountain, creating barrier lakes. Smaller landslides are also likely.

A temporary camp was set up in a nearby village, where 118 people are now staying.

Wang Zhuhuang, who is over 70, kept crying while a doctor, Zheng Xiuxiu, tried to comfort her. “All of a sudden, three of my family were nowhere to be seen,” she said.

Wang’s son, daughter-in-law and great granddaughter are missing.

Wang’s granddaughter-in-law, who is seven months’ pregnant, narrowly escaped death and is receiving treatment for her injuries.

While waiting to treat survivors, Dr Lei Qiang was checking the condition of relocated villagers.

“Several of them suffer from high blood pressure and painful joints, but we only brought medicine for emergency treatment,” he said, adding that more medicine was on the way.

Many of the villagers in Sucun are elderly people whose children are studying or working in cities.

“Many of them do not know how to use phones. We have helped them, one by one, to get in contact with their children,” said Ying Shuping, who has been helping to install telecom equipment in the temporary shelters.

In Baofeng, six people were reported missing after their homes were destroyed by the landslide there.

The disasters happened a day after Typhoon Megi made landfall on the Chinese mainland with winds of around 120 kilometers per hour.

Nation


 

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