2023-12-19 10:00:53
Rescue teams continue to work once morest the clock and in the middle of a freezing cold wave to find survivors following the earthquake that hit the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Qinghai last night, leaving at least 118 dead and 200 injured.
The teams fear that low temperatures, down to -14 degrees Celsius, will make relief efforts difficult, according to a testimony from a rescuer cited by the Chinese magazine Newsweek, which also points to complications in accessing the mountainous regions affected by the earthquake. of magnitude 6.2, and which had its epicenter on the border between the two aforementioned provinces.
In addition to the 118 dead (105 in Gansu and 13 in Qinghai) and the injured, there are at least 20 people missing, the official press reports, and teams are trying to find them despite the storm using drones, excavators and bulldozers.
In that sense, the state agency Xinhua points out that “the 72 hours following an earthquake, when it is most likely to rescue survivors, might be shortened by bad weather, so trapped victims face greater risk.”
The Chinese Executive and the Ministry of Emergency Management decreed a level II response to the incident, which especially affected the county of Jishisan, in Gansu, and the city of Haidong, in neighboring Qinghai, sending doctors and medical supplies to the area of the disaster.
Likewise, more than 2,000 firefighters were dispatched for relief efforts following the earthquake, which damaged 4,782 houses in the Jishisan area, to which must be added interruptions in the supply of water, communications and electricity.
The armed forces are also participating in the rescue and relief operations, for which Beijing has allocated an amount of 200 million yuan (around 28 million dollars, 25 million euros).
Buildings with low seismic resistance
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning urged local authorities to “make every effort” to treat the injured, repair infrastructure and resettle those affected.
It is the deadliest earthquake in China since the one that occurred in August 2014 in the western province of Yunnan, which left 617 dead, but a far cry from the one suffered in 2008 in the province of Sichuan, which left at least 70,000 dead.
The local press points out that last night’s earthquake left a “significant number of victims” due to “the low seismic resistance” of the buildings in those regions, to which we must add the moment of the earthquake, at night, “with no margin of maneuver to carry out an evacuation in time,” notes the Global Times newspaper.
Some residents told the local newspaper The Paper that many people were sleeping when the earthquake hit and did not have time to take shelter.
This newspaper also cites the testimony of a woman whose house collapsed instantly and who was able to escape because she was still awake when the earthquake occurred.
On the sidelines, videos and photographs that circulated today on Chinese social networks showed firefighters trying to rescue residents buried under the rubble and several affected people on the roads taking shelter between quilts.
In response, authorities have sent supplies including 2,600 tents, 10,400 folding beds, 10,400 quilts and 1,000 sets of stoves.
As of Tuesday morning, a total of 111,500 relief items had been allocated, Xinhua added, to cover the basic needs of affected people.
According to a preliminary analysis by the China Earthquake Network Center, the epicenter occurred in the northeastern area of the Tibetan Plateau, a seismic zone that frequently suffers earthquakes because it is located near the place where the tectonic plates of Asia and China collide. India, in the Himalayas.
Another seismic movement, of magnitude 5.5, was recorded today in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, also in the northwest, but far from inhabited areas, without reports of personal or material damage.
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