ShareBEIJING: Rain, flash floods and mudslides threatened the search for dozens of people still missing on Thursday, days after a strong earthquake rocked mountainous southwest China, killing at least 82. The magnitude 6.6 quake hit about 43 km southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province at a depth of 10 km on Monday, according to the US Geological Survey, forcing thousands to be resettled into temporary camps.
State broadcaster CCTV said that 46 people died in Ganzi prefecture near the epicenter, while 36 deaths were reported in neighboring Ya'an city. More than 270 others were injured while the number of missing remained at 35, CCTV reported without giving more details about the situations of those unaccounted for. A yellow alert issued by the national weather service - warning of a "risk of geological disaster" - was in force until Thursday night, and moderate rain was forecast to continue to Friday with heavy showers in some areas.
"Since the post-earthquake geological conditions are inherently fragile, and the impact of additional rainfall may lead to landslides and mudslides, the local area needs to beware of secondary disasters," China's meteorological administration said. The People's Liberation Army, paramilitary police, and fire rescue services dispatched more than 10,000 workers to the area, who continued search operations and landslide clean-up efforts in the remote countryside.
Mountain torrents
Rescuers braved flash floods and landslides caused by aftershocks to relocate villagers from destroyed homes, often having to haul them through mountainous terrain on ropes and stretchers. CCTV images showed soldiers in military fatigues and orange life jackets using a zip-line to ferry people across river rapids.
"We also waded through the water to get to Xingfu village. The mountain torrents contain rocks... the stones you can't see in the water pose the greatest threat to us," a rescue team member named Tan Ke told CCTV. "We quickly used ropes to build a human ladder... when we first started wading, the water reached our knees and thighs. By the time we got to a safe place, the flash flood had reached waist level."
Over 22,000 people have so far been moved into 124 temporary sites across Ganzi and Ya'an, the state-owned People's Daily newspaper reported. The paper said over 21,000 students and staff at a school in Shimian county, where Ya'an is located, were safely evacuated within one minute of the quake. Nearly 1,800 schools in the area had reopened by Wednesday, it added.
Workers raced to fix hundreds of kilometers of power and optical cables, with communications in affected areas "basically restored" as of Thursday, the China Youth Daily reported. Local authorities have received over 100 million yuan ($14 million) in disaster relief donations so far, the report said, and the Sichuan government issued an emergency notice requiring local authorities to dish out hardship allowances for affected people.
The quake also rocked buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu - where millions are confined to their homes under a strict COVID-19 lockdown - and in the nearby megacity of Chongqing, residents told AFP.
Lockdown extended
The Chinese megacity of Chengdu extended a COVID-19 lockdown in most areas, maintaining curbs that have ground business to a halt and China is the last major economy welded to a zero-COVID strategy, tamping down virus flare-ups through a combination of snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines.
Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, has been effectively under lockdown for a week since reporting several hundred COVID cases, confining the majority of its 21 million residents to their homes. The measure was expected to be lifted on Wednesday, but the city government said in a notice that "the entire city will continue to deeply push forward our assault for zero community spread".
Authorities would "strive hard for a week to realize the goal of zero community transmission in the whole city", the government added. "The fruits of the whole city's anti-epidemic measures are beginning to become apparent, but the risk of community transmission still exists in some areas," it said. All residents under lockdown will be tested every day, and each household will be permitted to send out one person per day to purchase groceries and other supplies, according to the notice.
Chengdu logged 116 new local infections on Thursday, more than half of which showed no symptoms, according to figures from the provincial health commission. Confined to their housing complexes, some residents were unable to flee when the strong earthquake in a nearby part of Sichuan reverberated through the city earlier this week, locals told AFP.
Elsewhere, the southern business and technology hub of Shenzhen eased some curbs this week after a virus surge prompted authorities to order the city's 18 million residents to refrain from leaving their homes. Officials in Beijing have urged the capital to guard against a rebound in infections during the Mid-Autumn public holiday, which runs from Saturday to Monday and is a popular period for travel and social gatherings. China reported 1,334 new domestic infections on Thursday, the majority of which were asymptomatic, according to the National Health Commission. - AFP
