A dozen still missing after China's earthquake

Weibo

21/12/2023 02:14

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      135 dead, 980 injured in disaster zone
    

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      12 missing in Qinghai; no missing reported in Gansu 
    

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      Rescue efforts in Gansu ended in about 15 hours
    

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      Temperatures near epicentre at daily low of -15°C since
Tuesday
    

  
    By Liz Lee
       BEIJING, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A dozen people were still
missing on Thursday after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck
northwestern Gansu province late Monday and netizens questioned
the speed at which rescue operations ended.
    Chinese media reported that search and rescue work in Gansu
ended at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, about 15 hours after the
disaster hit a remote and mountainous area near the border
straddling Gansu and Qinghai provinces. It was not immediately
clear whether the search in Qinghai was continuing.
    In Gansu, 113 people had been found dead as of 9 a.m. on
Wednesday (0100 GMT) and 782 were injured, authorities said.
Gansu has not reported any missing person.
    Neighbouring Qinghai saw its death toll rose to 22 with 198
injured and 12 missing as of 8:56 p.m. on Wednesday.
    More than 207,000 homes were wrecked and nearly 15,000
collapsed in Gansu, affecting more than 145,000 people.
    Discussions online showed netizens curious about how quickly
rescue efforts wrapped up in Gansu, with many suggesting that
the sub-freezing temperatures were the main factor in shortening
the "golden period" for finding survivors -  typically 72 hours
post-disaster. 
    People trapped under rubble exposed to prolonged
temperatures of -10° Celsius (14°F) run the risk of rapid
hypothermia and may only be able to live for five to 10 hours
even if uninjured, local media reported, citing researchers.
    "They would have been dead by the time they were found, even
24 hours is already too long. Outdoor temperatures are below
minus 10 C," a user on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo
commented.
    Some users on Weibo considered other factors such as that
the search area was not especially wide, and that people have
been all accounted for, leading to rescue efforts ending in less
than a day.
    Many of the affected families are Hui people, an ethnic
minority mostly found in western Chinese provinces and regions
such as Gansu, Ningxia and Shaanxi.
     Rescuers on Wednesday pulled to safety several victims of
the earthquake, which jolted Jishishan county in Gansu a minute
before midnight on Monday, sending many residents in the area
out of homes into the cold in the dead of the night.
    Survivors face uncertainty in the wintry months ahead
without permanent shelter amid freezing temperatures.
    Roads, power and water lines and agricultural production
facilities have suffered damage, and the quake triggered land
and mudslides that swept through villages in Qinghai's Haidong
where the missing were reported from.    
    

 (Reporting by Liz Lee, Ella Cao and Shanghai newsroom. Editing
by Gerry Doyle)
 ((liz.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))