In bitter cold, rescuers struggle to help earthquake survivors in China

Rescuers struggled to plow through 8-foot (2.5-meter) piles of frozen sludge that blocked entrances to devastated villages. Emergency vehicles struggled to navigate icy, damaged mountain roads. Victims with serious injuries were rushed to hospitals in cities as demand for medical care overwhelmed the limited capacity of villages.

In the aftermath of China’s deadliest earthquake in nearly a decade, aid workers rushed to find survivors and distribute aid in northwest China’s Jishishan province. They faced the challenges of rescue work in bitter cold in a remote part of Gansu, one of China’s poorest provinces.

The earthquake, which struck late Monday evening, killed at least 131 people, most in Gansu but some in neighboring Qinghai province, according to official figures updated on Wednesday. The death toll had risen from 120 the day before, and the window for rescuing survivors — shorter than normal because of the frigid conditions, experts said — had shrunk.

More than 87,000 people had been temporarily resettled as of Wednesday morning, Gansu officials said at a news conference. photos state media showed rows of blue tents set up at three key resettlement sites in the province, where residents, wrapped in heavy coats, huddled around vehicles equipped with sockets to charge their phones, or queued for bowls of hot food. Others lit bonfires in the streets to stay warm.

When the earthquake struck, temperatures in Jishishan, a rural and mountainous cluster of towns and villages home to about a quarter of a million people, were near -20 degrees Celsius, or -4 degrees Fahrenheit. cold wave that has gripped much of China. According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.9, although the China Earthquake Administration estimated it at 6.2.

“Earthquake in Gansu: the worst time, the most vulnerable place” was a popular phrase on Chinese social media on Wednesday. Temperatures remained cold on Wednesday, with lows around -16 degrees Celsius or 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

The quake injured at least 980 people and damaged more than 200,000 buildings, officials said. One of the hardest-hit towns, called Dahejia, exemplified the challenges rescuers and survivors face.

More than 80 percent of the houses in the village were now uninhabitable, a local official said told Xinhua, a state news agency. Many of the houses were made of earth, and some were more than a century old, making them particularly vulnerable, one rescuer said. Jishishan County was considered “poverty” until 2020, one of the last areas in China to be supposedly lifted out of poverty as part of a nationwide campaign. It is home to ethnic minorities, including the Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar people, many of whom are Muslim.

The province did not have enough clothes, quilts or shoes to distribute to residents and had to rely on outside help, a local official. said Tuesday.

Some residents who had rushed outside into the midnight cold when the earthquake struck still had only the few layers they had managed to grab in the dark.

Ye Jinmo, a restaurant owner in Dahejia who was sheltering with her husband and four teenage children in a government-provided tent, said by telephone Wednesday morning that the government had not yet started distributing clothes, although she had seen many supplies arriving.

“The only thing I’m wearing is what I wore outside during the earthquake,” she said.

Still, the tent had a stove to provide warmth, and officials had distributed noodles, Ms. Ye said.

Much of the relief effort was concentrated in Dahejia, with some people in other villages still waiting for help on Wednesday. Due to the shortage of tents, some villagers elsewhere in Jishishan spent the night in their cars or in huts they built themselves. according to Caixina Chinese news channel.

In Chuimatan town, about 25 kilometers from Dahejia, some residents whose roofs were now open could only stay with relatives whose homes were more intact, or shelter in restaurants or public buildings, said Ma Zhanguo, a resident there. No tents or other relief items had yet been distributed there, said Mr Ma, who said his own apartment building had suffered cracks but was still habitable.

“No one has time to think about repairs. Just escaping with your life is the most important thing,” he said. “The government is busy elsewhere. Here people figure out for themselves where to go in the evening.”

In Qinghai province, where 18 of the deaths occurred, rescuers battled landslides caused by the earthquake. Some buildings were buried in soil that had liquefied due to the vibrations and then froze again at the low temperatures. The Paper, a Communist Party-affiliated news site, reported. Workers had to use excavators to remove the mud and pave paths through the mud with rocks and firewood.

Officials said on Wednesday that rescue work had been largely completed and that their efforts would focus mainly on treating the injured and resettlement. At the news conference on Wednesday, Gansu officials said electricity and water had been restored throughout Jishishan.

Still, in the middle of the press conference that took place streamed live the video was cut from state broadcaster CCTV. An anchor explained that the power supply at the site was unstable.

The authorities also tried to maintain order in other, more punitive ways. Local officials said they had arrested two men after saying online that there would be an aftershock even stronger than the first earthquake. The men were sentenced to five days in prison.

The last earthquake in China with a higher number of deaths occurred in 2014 in the southwestern province of Yunnan, where 617 people were killed. The government has stepped up rescue and relief efforts after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan province, not far from Gansu, killed about 90,000 people in 2008.

Siyi Zhao contributed research from Seoul.