3 people are still missing after an earthquake killed 148 people in northwest China » Today Latest Stories
When a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, Ma Shijun, a student at Dahejia Middle School in Jishan County in northwest China’s Gansu Province, walked out of the dormitory barefoot and without a coat.
As temperatures dropped to below minus 10 degrees Celsius, Ma felt slight numbness in his hands due to the cold, as teachers immediately organized the students to seek shelter on the playground.
“When I see more and more rescuers arriving, I find myself less afraid than when the earthquake first happened,” Ma said.
As of 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the death toll in Gansu had reached 113 people, in addition to 782 wounded. The quake also killed 18 people and injured 198 others in neighboring Qinghai Province, where 16 others are still missing, local authorities said Wednesday morning.
Immediately after the earthquake occurred, President Xi Jinping urged all-out search and rescue efforts and make appropriate arrangements for the affected people to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, instructed local authorities to immediately rescue and treat the injured to reduce human casualties and closely monitor the earthquake situation and weather changes to prevent secondary disasters. .
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Live updates: At least 110 people killed after a strong earthquake in northwest China
Rapid response to emergencies
In his instructions, Xi stressed the importance of organizing the allocation of rescue and relief supplies as quickly as possible and repairing damaged infrastructure facilities such as electricity, communications, transportation and heating.
The State Council sent a working team to the affected areas to help direct relief work. Gansu and Qinghai provinces organized relief support with immediate allocation of relief supplies such as camps and folding beds to affected areas.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police Forces have deployed multiple rescue forces to the earthquake-affected areas.
According to the Western Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army, at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, about 300 soldiers from the command arrived in Jixishan County, the epicenter of the earthquake and the worst-hit area. They were assigned tasks that included searching for victims, rescue operations, and clearing roads.
Meanwhile, the Gansu Corps of the Pakistan Police Force mobilized more than 300 officers and soldiers and deployed more than 40 vehicles in Jishan. Their tasks included searching for and rescuing individuals, facilitating the transfer of injured people, opening blocked roads, and setting up tents as shelters.
The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning body, announced Tuesday that it has allocated 250 million yuan (about 35.2 million US dollars) of investment from the central budget for quake-hit areas in Gansu and Qinghai provinces to support emergency restoration and construction work. Infrastructure and public service facilities.
Relief efforts continue
The Chinese Red Cross Society has begun its level 2 emergency response and sent work teams to the affected areas. The Chinese Red Cross said that the emergency coordination mechanism has also been activated in northwest China, and search and rescue teams, medical teams and disaster relief teams have been deployed.
In addition, the National Health Commission announced on Tuesday that a team of medical experts has been dispatched to assist the affected area. The committee coordinated emergency medical teams from various regions, including Sichuan, Shaanxi and Ningxia, to contribute to rescue efforts in Gansu and Qinghai.
In the town of Dahejia, one of the areas most affected by the earthquake, more than 900 people were temporarily housed in more than 100 tents, with access to food, water and medical resources.
Yan Wei, deputy director of the Gansu branch of the Blue Sky Rescue Team, was among the first responders to arrive in the city hours after the quake.
“About 70 to 80 percent of the houses in the town were damaged,” Yan told CGTN. “Roads have collapsed in some areas.”
Different types of rescue resources are pouring in, he said. He added that local officials provided coats and thermal equipment, among other things, to those affected by the disaster.
