Villagers mourn landslide dead
Print Edition
VILLAGERS visited what used to be their relatives’ homes yesterday to mourn loved ones lost when a landslide swept down a Chinese mountain, with little hope of finding anyone alive after more than 48 hours of fruitless searching.
At least 93 people are missing after the landslide engulfed more than 60 homes in Xinmo village in mountainous Sichuan Province as dawn broke on Saturday. Ten people have been confirmed dead.
Only three survivors — a couple and their one-month-old baby — have been found.
The work safety bureau in the southwest China province ordered rescue workers to be evacuated from the disaster zone yesterday morning after monitoring equipment picked up “moving and deformation of the hillside,” Xinhua news agency said.
Xinhua said there were “risks of a secondary landslide.”
The government has sent some 3,000 workers to take part in the search, while excavators and bulldozers are being used to clear debris at the base of the slope.
Authorities have promised to do all they can to look for survivors. Geological monitoring was continuing, the Maoxian County government said.
Saturday’s landslide blocked a 2-kilometer stretch of river and 1.6 kilometers of road. It carried an estimated 18 million cubic meters of earth and rock — equivalent to more than 7,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools — when it slid down steep mountain slopes. Some of it fell from as high as 1.6 kilometers.
“Our house was somewhere around here but everything has been destroyed beyond recognition,” said a middle-aged woman, one of a few residents who were away when disaster struck, after she pulled a green blanket she recognized out of the mud and rocks.
Heavy rain had triggered the landslide, authorities have said.
With the danger of more landslides, authorities have been restricting access to the disaster zone, but hundreds of people were allowed back yesterday.
Mournful wails and firecracker explosions echoed through Xinmo’s steep valley as bereaved relatives made their return, many clutching snacks and bottles of wine as offerings for the dead.
Some people burned paper money and lit incense which, along with setting off fireworks, are traditional acts of mourning.
“Every single family has been impacted by the landslide, it’s horrible,” said Sun Danxian, from a neighboring village who was walking through the site.
The Maoxian County government posted drone video footage of the area online that showed around a dozen mechanical diggers sifting through a devastated landscape of grey rocks.
Sichuan is a province that is prone to earthquakes, including one of 8.0-magnitude that hit central Wenchuan County in 2008, killing nearly 70,000 people.
Maoxian is next to Wenchuan.
Most residents of the area are poor farmers belonging to the Qiang ethnic minority and the area is the target of a poverty alleviation project, according to government officials.
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