Earthquake in China: “race against time” to rehouse survivors during the winter

The authorities are engaged in a “race against time” to ensure that survivors of the deadliest earthquake in recent years in China can spend the winter warm, an official told AFP on Thursday.

This earthquake, which occurred Monday evening about 1,300 km southwest of Beijing and whose epicenter is located in the province of Gansu (northwest), caused at least 135 dead and almost 1,000 injuredaccording to the official Xinhua news agency.

The disaster area is affected by freezing temperatures in winter, even lower this year due to the cold spell affecting the country.

“It’s a race against time to meet the needs of the population as quickly as possible, so that people can spend the winter warm and safe,” Zhou Yongfeng, the mayor of the small town of Liugou, in one of the areas most affected by the earthquake.

A vast logistics operation has been mounted in the last three days.

Thousands of aid workers, military personnel and relief workers have set up shelter, equipment and distributed food for people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Problematic rehousing

Hundreds of big blue tents were notably installed by the authorities in the canton of Jishishan, the most affected, in order to replace the improvised shelters built by residents just after the earthquake, AFP journalists noted on Thursday.

The situation has clearly improved compared to previous days with better access to food and more efficient food distribution.

But the rehousing of disaster victims still poses a problem, Mayor Zhou Yongfeng explains to AFP.

“These makeshift tents cannot be a long-term solution (…) But it is too cold in winter in northern China to rebuild” immediately, she said.

“The work cannot begin until the spring.”

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a reference on the subject, the earthquake occurred Monday at 11:59 p.m. local time (3:59 p.m. GMT), with an epicenter located approximately 100 km from Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu.

“Want to go home”

Twelve people are also still missing in the neighboring province of Qinghai.

Monday’s earthquake was the deadliest in the country since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

At Jishishan County People’s Hospital, near the epicenter, doctors were treating the injured on Thursday. They administered intravenous drips and examined X-rays in a building damaged by the earthquake.

“I really want to go home,” a patient who needs leg surgery told AFP. “But my house was destroyed. So I don’t really know where to go.”

For his part, a cantonal official explains that “people are always afraid of aftershocks”. “They can’t sleep well because there’s no real safe place.”