Landslides pose further threats to areas devastated by earthquake
Print Edition
THE earthquake that struck in southwest China’s Yunnan Province at the weekend triggered landslides blocking rivers to create rapidly growing bodies of water that could unleash more destruction on survivors of the disaster that has killed 410 people.
More than 2,300 people were injured and 12 are missing after the 6.5-magnitude quake struck on Sunday. It was the region’s strongest quake in 14 years and destroyed thousands of buildings.
“A huge barrier lake containing more than 3,000 cubic meters of water has inundated dozens of homes and continues to threaten nearby villages,” Xinhua news agency quoted hydrological officials as saying.
“Its water level is increasing at a speed of 30 centimeters per hour, putting seven power stations in the lower reaches in danger,” Xinhua said.
Thousands of police, soldiers and firefighters have been sent to help but rescue work is being hampered by poor infrastructure, aftershocks and debris in the mountainous region.
On Monday, an army doctor went missing while trying to swim across a lake to help a villager search for his missing wife, Xinhua said.
Workers have begun letting water out of two reservoirs which were cracked by the quake, it said.
Some 10,000 troops used pickaxes and backhoes to clear roads and dig residents from collapsed homes yesterday. Meanwhile, volunteers such as student Jackson Zeng used their bare hands.
Zeng joined a group of two dozen classmates who headed to Yunnan Province’s remote mountainous county of Ludian, the epicenter.
“I grew up around here and these are my people. I’m not sure what I can do, but I will help any way that I can,” said Zeng, a third-year student at Kunming University of Science and Technology.
Zeng’s black T-shirt contrasted with the scores of green fatigue-clad troops along the main road into the quake zone. Paramilitary personnel with a backhoe and other heavy equipment pushed earth from a stretch of road affected by a landslide, while Zeng and other students used their hands to push rocks over a cliff.
Many hundreds of volunteers have converged on the nearby city of Zhaotong on route to the quake-hit areas — a typical phenomenon during disasters in China. Many of them came empty-handed, but some were formed into company-sponsored units complete with uniforms and their own relief aid to distribute.
The government has also sent thousands of tents, quilts, sleeping bags and cotton coats to the region, as well as folding beds, chairs and tables, and mobile toilets.
The quake struck an area of steep hills and narrow roads not suited to all the traffic of the massive relief effort, and heavy rain has added to the complications. Much of the damage was due to landslides.
Ambulances, bulldozers and trucks filled with water and noodles, along with the squads of volunteers, clogged the main road heading to the hardest-hit town of Longtoushan, about 370 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital of Kunming. Helicopters hoisted supplies to the most remote areas.
Rescuers pulled dozens of trapped people from the debris over the first couple of days.
In one dramatic scene, an 88-year-old woman was pulled from a pile of rubble late yesterday after being buried for more than 50 hours.
“The aged person’s health is fine and uninjured, though is weak and suffering from low blood sugar due to a lack of food,” the Yunnan Information Daily cited medical staff as saying.
Also yesterday, two pregnant women who had comforted each other while they lay trapped underneath the rubble were also rescued.
Many of the homes in Ludian, which has a population of about 429,000, were rudimentary mud-brick structures that collapsed easily in the quake.
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