A dozen still missing after China's earthquake, 137 dead (updated)

Weibo

21/12/2023 06:32

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      137 dead, 982 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 around daily low of -15°C
since
Tuesday
    

  
 (Adds comments from survivors in Gansu, paragraphs 13-18)
    By Alessandro Diviggiano, Xiaoyu Yin and Liz Lee
       DAHEJIA, China, 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 had 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, 115 people had been found dead as of 9 a.m. on
Wednesday (0100 GMT) and 784 were injured, authorities said.
Gansu has not reported any missing persons.
    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.
    
SURVIVING THE COLD
     Rescuers on Wednesday pulled to safety 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.
    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.
    In Gansu's Sibuzi village, villagers worried about the
freezing winter.
    "Many people escaped from their homes, some without socks,
just ran out barefoot. It's extremely cold standing on the
ground," said Zhou Habai, an ethnic Hui woman.
        The 24-year-old, now staying in a makeshift tent after
her home was destroyed, said some villagers have been gathering
and burning firewood to keep warm.
  
        About 60% of the survivors have not received tents,
63-year-old Ye Zhiying, from the same village, told Reuters.
  
        He said officials from the Communist Party had told them
that the village would distribute tents by noon on Thursday, and
would be set up in less than a week.
  
        "Whether everyone can be accommodated or not, we don't
know," said the Hui villager, who was given a tent on Wednesday.
  
    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 Alessandro Diviggiano and Xiaoyu Yin in Dahejia,
Liz Lee and Ella Cao in Beijing, and Shanghai newsroom. Editing
by Gerry Doyle)
 ((liz.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))