China
Zhouqu villagers worried about future landslides
By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-18 13:53
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 Feng Zihao, a 2-year-old boy, rests in a tent in Zhouqu, Gansu province, on Tuesday. Wang Jing / China Daily
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ZHOUQU, Gansu - The death toll from the massive mudslide in Zhouqu county, Northwest China's Gansu province, has risen to 1,270 as of 4 pm on Tuesday, with 474 still missing, the local disaster relief headquarters said.
Rescue workers have been racing to restore water, communications and power supplies in the area.
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Mobile phone networks have resumed operating, though landline services remain cut off in most of the town.
Local health authorities have received no reports of infectious disease, the sources added.
More rain has been forecast for the area from Tuesday to Saturday, leaving locals worried about the risk of further landslides.
The provincial meteorological bureau and the land and resource bureau issued a level 4 warning for possible geological disaster in Zhouqu county, according to the disaster relief headquarters.
The county government has implemented an emergency plan to prevent further disaster.
In Nanyu village, which is located nine kilometers from the Zhouqu county seat, residents remain worried about the risk of more landslides.
A river that passes through Nanyu village was covered with silt and rocks after a mudslide occurred last Wednesday.
"The mudslides in Zhouqu made all of us very nervous," said Nanyu village head Sun Xingxing, 39.
Nanyu's water pipeline was destroyed last Thursday and 2,000 villagers have since had to retrieve water every day from a well two kilometers away.
The only highway leading to Zhouqu was also destroyed by the mudslides.
Sun said he was informed late on Monday that Nanyu villagers would be evacuated if heavy rainfall occurs, which could trigger another mudslide.
"We are staring at the cell phone and weather forecast, fearing that the flood will come," said Zhao Luosheng, 55, a primary school teacher in Nanyu.
A wall of a primary school in the village was destroyed by flooding and mudslides, which delayed the school from opening until Aug 25.
Not far from Zhouqu, torrential rain left 36 people dead and 23 missing in Longnan as of Monday afternoon, provincial authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.
As of 4 pm on Monday, secondary disasters triggered by rain since last Wednesday, including mudslides and landslides, had injured 295 people, the provincial government added in a statement.
The rain prompted the evacuation of 122,835 Longnan residents to emergency shelters, the statement said.
They also caused 6,090 houses to collapse and damaged another 15,223.
Some of the seriously injured were being transferred to hospitals in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, the statement said.
According to a separate statement released by the Gansu government on Tuesday morning, 3.8 million yuan ($500,000) in relief funds have been earmarked for victims of the torrential rain in the city of Tianshui.
More than 4,500 boxes of instant noodles and 1,000 boxes of purified water, together with 420 tents and 2,500 plastic boards for flooring, were delivered to the cities of Tianshui and Longnan.
China Daily