Rescue teams are racing to a mudslide-stricken border port in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region after the disaster caused significant casualties across the China-Nepal border on Wednesday.
The mudslide occurred on Wednesday morning in Nepal, resulting in dozens dead and hundreds missing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out efforts to search and rescue people who are missing, evacuate residents at risk and provide timely medical treatment to the injured to minimize casualties.
Guarding against secondary disasters
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed the need to strengthen monitoring and early warning, ensure scientific rescue operations and guard against secondary disasters.
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, is leading officials from relevant departments to the site to guide rescue and disaster-response operations.
Xizang has activated its highest-level relief and emergency response for natural disasters. The region’s emergency management authority has dispatched 792 personnel and 152 vehicles for the rescue effort, while the regional fire and rescue authority has mobilized 72 vehicles and 431 firefighting and rescue personnel with rescue dogs, life scanners and speed boats to aid the effort. Troops and armed police officers have also been sent to help with the rescue.
Fleets of rescue vehicles could be seen on the way from Lhasa to Gyirong, according to Xinhua reporters who were racing to the site.
As of 5:35 p.m., central and regional authorities had dispatched relief supplies including 8,000 cotton coats, 2,000 tents, 3,000 quilts and 5,000 moisture-proof mats to the affected area, officials said.
Mudslide cut off roads
The mudslide has cut off roads leading to the port, as well as communications and power supplies, officials revealed, adding that the first batch of power grid repairers had arrived at the site.
On the national level, the Ministry of Natural Resources activated a Level-II emergency response for geological disasters, the second-highest in China’s four-tier emergency response system, and dispatched a working team to the stricken site to guide rescue operations and prevent secondary disasters, the ministry said.
The National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief, together with the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM), helped allocate 30,000 central relief supplies including tents, stoves, clothing, quilts, folding beds and moisture-proof mats to support the evacuation, resettlement and relief work.
The Ministry of Finance and the MEM also allocated 120 million yuan (about 17.69 million U.S. dollars) in central natural disaster relief funds to support Xizang in carrying out emergency rescue and disaster relief operations.
Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission earmarked 100 million yuan in central budget investment to support post-disaster emergency recovery and reconstruction efforts.
China Anneng, a state-owned engineering and rescue enterprise, has sent a first batch of 200 rescue personnel to the site, carrying equipment including multi-functional drones, 3D laser scanners and life detectors.
The local meteorological observatory forecasts continued rainfall across Gyirong County from Wednesday evening through Sunday, warning of possible floods, landslides and other secondary disasters in low-lying areas.
- A mudslide occurred Wednesday morning in Nepal, causing dozens of deaths and hundreds missing, impacting the China-Nepal border and a border port in China’s Xizang Autonomous Region.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered all-out search and rescue efforts, evacuation of at-risk residents, medical treatment for the injured, and measures against secondary disasters.
- Xizang activated its highest-level emergency response, deploying 792 personnel, 152 vehicles, 431 firefighting and rescue personnel with equipment, and troops and armed police to aid the rescue.
- Roads, communications, and power supplies to the port were cut off by the mudslide, with power grid repair teams dispatched, and a Level-II emergency response activated by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
- Central authorities allocated 30,000 relief supplies and over 220 million yuan for emergency relief, rescue, recovery, and reconstruction, while rescue teams deployed advanced equipment like drones and 3D laser scanners to the site.
