China Gansu Earthquake Rescue Ends... Focus on Survivor Treatment and Public Assistance

Local authorities in China announced on the 20th that they have concluded rescue operations related to the earthquake damage and will now focus on treating survivors and supporting the resettlement of residents.

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP), the People's Governments of Gansu Province and Qinghai Province declared that the rescue operations related to the earthquake have basically been completed, and the rescue teams will concentrate on treating injured survivors and assisting residents with resettlement.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to China’s state-run CCTV, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that occurred on the 18th in Jishishan County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, resulted in a total of 131 deaths and 16 missing persons. Of the fatalities, 113 occurred in Gansu Province and 18 in Qinghai Province. This scale of damage is the deadliest earthquake in 10 years since the 2014 earthquake in Yunnan Province, which caused 617 deaths.

Local media such as Pengpai reported that tents to accommodate the displaced are in severe shortage, and rescue efforts faced difficulties due to a cold wave with temperatures dropping to minus 14 degrees Celsius. According to China’s Ministry of Emergency Management, 2,042 firefighters were dispatched to the site for rescue operations as of the previous afternoon. The Ministry of National Defense stated that a total of about 2,800 personnel, including around 700 emergency responders from central state-owned enterprises, were deployed to participate in the rescue efforts. Additionally, about 300 civilian rescue workers were dispatched.

The Ministry of Transport explained that all roads in the affected areas of Gansu and Qinghai have been fully reopened since the 19th. Furthermore, the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture, and Water Resources have allocated disaster relief funds amounting to 220 million yuan (approximately 40.0488 billion KRW) to support agricultural facilities and water supply in the affected areas.

Previously, the Ministry of Finance, together with the Ministry of Emergency Management, allocated 200 million yuan for disaster relief, and the National Development and Reform Commission estimated that about 250 million yuan would be needed to restore infrastructure in the affected areas.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.