Tent village with all the mod cons
THE tent village that sprang up in two days to house quake survivors in mountainflanked Lushan is no ordinary refugee camp.
China’s full range of disaster response is on display: trucks with X-ray equipment, phone-charging stations, bank tellers-on-wheels – even a tent for insurance claims.
The efforts under way in mountainous Sichuan province after a quake on Saturday that killed at least 200 people showed that the government has continued to hone its disaster reaction – long considered a crucial leadership test in China – since a much more devastating earthquake in 2008, also in Sichuan, and another one in 2010 in the western region of Yushu.
“Lushan was so heavily hit and my family’s house toppled. It has been such a disaster for us,” said Yue Hejun, 28, as he waited to recharge his family’s three cellphones at a charging stall, volunteered by a communications company and co-ordinated by the government in a new addition to the arsenal of services after natural disasters.
Helicopters have been an obvious presence in the latest rescue efforts, used to reach outlying communities, unlike in 2008 when bad weather hampered their use in the critical first 36 hours. This time, better use of helicopters for reconnaissance – with remote sensing technology – and for the distribution of aid had allowed help to get out more quickly to where it was needed, said Teng Wuxiao, director of the Institute of Urban Public Security at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Still, complaints were common among the survivors of the latest quake, especially in the more hard-to-reach areas. While aid was being delivered, it was not getting out to all who need it. Yue said family members in his remote mountain village had received no help with shelter and were living under tarpaulins.
The death toll in Saturday’s quake – measured at magni- tude 7.0 by Chinese authorities and at magnitude 6.6 by monitors in the US – may continue to tick upward, with about two dozen people still missing.
The state Xinhua News Agency, quoting provincial emergency officials, said 200 people were killed, 23 were still missing and 11 470 wounded.
Beyond the bare necessities, there are also stalls for survivors to make insurance claims, a large vehicle that con- verts into a bank and ATM-onwheels, and tents sponsored by Chinese telecoms companies providing numerous electrical extension cords for residents to recharge their electrical gadgets. – Sapa-AP