TROOPS DUG through the wreckage of a northwest Chinese town yesterday, frantically looking for some of the thousands of residents still missing and feared dead after mudslides that have claimed 127 lives so far.
The deluge struck at 10pm when many of the residents were asleep and took people, cars and property in its wake. The sludge is nearly two metres deep on the roads in some parts of Zhouqu county in Gansu province, and the rescue efforts are even more pressing because more heavy rain is forecast in the region tomorrow.
Some 2,000 local residents are unaccounted for since a deluge of floodwater and mud hit the area in the isolated province of Gansu, after heavy rains which have devastated the area and brought misery to China as well as other countries in the region.
The disaster follows flooding in Pakistan which has killed more than 1,600 people, and in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Flash floods have killed at least 132 people in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, known as “Grandfather Wen” for his hands-on approach when natural disasters strike China, rushed to the stricken area, which has a large Tibetan minority. Premier Wen and President Hu Jintao urged rescuers to “spare no effort” in trying to rescue survivors.
The central government is skilful at mobilising efforts to deal with natural disasters, and this success is one of the reasons for the popularity of the ruling Communist Party.
Runoff from the downpour built up behind a landslide on the Bailong River, running through the main town of Zhouqu, and TV pictures showed hundreds of troops moving bodies wrapped in sheets from the debris-strewn wreckage.
One dramatic piece of footage on state broadcaster CCTV, shot on a mobile phone, showed policemen rescuing two children and three adults trapped on top of a seven-storey building, half of which had been washed away.
About 45,000 people have been evacuated, according to a statement from the provincial civil affairs department.
The clogged river in the narrow valley burst its banks and triggered flooding and mudslides that struck the town after midnight, smashing a small hydroelectric power station, the official Xinhua news agency reported. More than 300 homes in Yueyuan village had been buried, and the number of casualties was still not known.
“Torrential rains began to fall at around 10pm Saturday. Then there were mudslides, and many people became trapped. Now sludge has become the biggest hindrance to rescue operations. It’s too thick to walk or drive through,” county head Diemujiangteng told Xinhua.
The ooze has completely levelled an area about 5km long and 500m wide, and some 20,000 people have been affected.
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated to higher ground, with two temporary settlement centres set up on the playgrounds of two middle schools in the county, according to local officials.
“Since excavators can’t reach the site, we can only use spades and our hands to rescue the buried,” police officer He Youxin said. His rescue team has saved 23 people and recovered 15 bodies.
However, he said it was very hard to locate the people washed away by floods. “It’s hard to say what their chances of survival are,” said Mr He.
About 2,800 troops and 100 medical aid workers were helping the relief effort, while 5,000 tents were being sent to the town.
China’s main disaster relief agencies – the National Committee for Disaster Reduction, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Civil Affairs – have lifted the relief response level to grade II, the second highest level.