Disaster Information and Relief Work of Qinghai Yushu 7.1-magnitude Earthquake

I．Disaster information

According to the data of national earthquake monitoring network, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Yushu county (Lat33.1N,Long96.7E) of Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai Province at 7:49am on April 14th with epicenter depth of 33 km. At 9:25am, a 6.3-aftershock with epicenter depth of 30km struck the county (Lat33.2N,Long96.6E) again. The earthquake epicenter located in the mountainous area with the altitude of more than 4300 meters above sea level in the Yushu county.

According to the preliminary statistics by 7:00am, April 15th, the earthquake has claimed 589 lives, more than 8,000 people were injured and 15,000 houses collapsed and 100,000 people need to be urgently evacuated. The further disaster information is being ascertained and clarified.

Ⅱ Disaster Relief work

The Central goverment of People’ Republic of China and the State Council attached great importance to the earthquake resistance and relief work. The General Secretary of communist party, Hu Jingtao, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice Premier Hu liangyu made important remarks and required to exert all effort to combat the earthquake and rescue the strained people, as well as to strengthen earthquake monitoring and forecasting work, fulfill all measures for aftershocks prevention and arrange properly affected people’s life to maintain the stability of the earthquake-hit areas. A working team headed by Vice Premier Hui liangyu descended to disaster-hit area for inspection, consolation delivery and instruction of the relief work. The Ministry of Civil Affairs of P.R. China has lunched emergency response and engaged in the following operation revolving around the full guarantee of people’s life:

1. The contingency plan was urgently activated. National Committee for Disaster Reduction and Ministry of Civil Affairs promptly launched the 4th grade response on 8:30 am of April 14th, 2010, and upgraded to the 1st grade at 12 am in consistence with the disaster situation. Mr. Pingfei, the Vice Minister of Civil Affairs of P.R. China joined the working team of the State Council and went down to the disaster-hit area. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Affairs dispatched a disaster assessment team headed by Mr.Liu Yongfa, the disaster relief commissioner, to the on-site of earth quake-hit area to assist the disaster relief work.

2. The working mechanism of the people’s livelihood team was swiftly set up. According to the command of the State Council, the Ministry of Civil Affairs took the lead to set up the people’ livelihood Team under the Emergency Earthquake Resistance and Relief Headquarter of the State Council, and created working mechanism to better carry out the earthquake resistance and relief work. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Affairs launched the joint emergency response mechanism in conjunction with the Ministry of Ministry of Railways, CAAC, and the Ministry of National Defense to coordinate the supply of disaster relief materials.

3. Disaster relief materials were urgently organized. Ministry of Civil Affairs has dispatched 20,000 cotton tents, 50,000 winter clothes and 50,000 quilts from Tianjin, Shenyang, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu and Xi’an central warehouses of disaster relief materials to quake-hit areas in Qinghai to address the difficulties that local affected people encountered. All relief materials were loaded and arrive at afflicted area on April 15.

4. Temporary relief policies for afflicted people were identified. We have initiated temporary relief and resistance operation to the affected people in order to address their life difficulties; 10 yuan emergency allowance and 0.5 kg refined grain per person per day have been distributed in the afflicted area to aid the displaced, people without production materials and without incomes to tackle their basic livelihood problems. In addition, the expended relief effort will be exerted to the orphans, the aged without relatives and the disabled. The needed funds were allotted from comprehensive relief finance subsides of central budget with the total sum of 200 million yuan on April 14.

5. To strengthen disaster information tracking and monitoring. Ministry of Civil Affairs has built direct contact with the counties of disaster affected areas to acquire the information of disaster development and affected people's life arrangements. National Disaster Reduction Center of Ministry of Civil Affairs also activated the "the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters" mechanism (for short CHARTER mechanism) in time, to ensure the acquiring of satellite images of the disaster affected areas timely from related international organizations, and to carry out disaster assessment to provide scientific rationales for decision-making of disaster relief.

ⅢOperation arrangement of next stage。

1. To make the utmost effort to ensure the afflicted people’s life. Based on the need of the affected area, we should urgently transfer tents and other various living materials and provide guidance on a better work to collect and distribute life necessary supplies in order to assist the affected people to address the problems related to shelters and other suchlike difficulties.

2. To deliver a better performance of funeral-related work of the victims. The quake has caused massive casualties and injuries. Under the unified leadership of the local party commission and municipalities, the department of civil affairs at all levels should act in concerted effort to better unfold the rescue work for the trapped people and work effectively on funeral-related affairs as well as settle the consolation affairs in a proper way for the victims’ relatives and families.

3. To strengthen the direction on disaster relief donation work, we need to instruct the China’s Red Cross society, China Charity Federation, and other relevant NGOs to launch a sound relief donation work with establishment and improvement of the statistic regulation. These above-mentioned organizations should proactively enhance the management, application of the funds and track inquires in conjunction with counterpart departments to meet the satisfaction of the affected people.

4. To launch the rehabilitation and reconstruction operations at earliest stage. The further investigation of disaster losses and assessment should be carried out to provide scientific rationales for post-disaster restoration. Meanwhile, we need to offer the instructions on reconstruction work of the collapsed houses and promptly allocate central funds of subsidies for rural housing reconstruction in negotiation of the Ministry of Finance to aid the afflicted people to restore their homes.

Disaster Information and Relief Work of Qinghai Yushu 7.1-magnitude Earthquake

Ministry of Civil Affairs of P.R.C

I．Disaster information

According to the data of national earthquake monitoring network, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Yushu county (Lat33.1N,Long96.7E) of Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai Province at 7:49am on April 14th with epicenter depth of 33 km. At 9:25am, a 6.3-aftershock with epicenter depth of 30km struck the county (Lat33.2N,Long96.6E) again. The earthquake epicenter located in the mountainous area with the altitude of more than 4300 meters above sea level in the Yushu county.

According to the preliminary statistics by 7:00am, April 15th, the earthquake has claimed 589 lives, more than 8,000 people were injured and 15,000 houses collapsed and 100,000 people need to be urgently evacuated. The further disaster information is being ascertained and clarified.

Ⅱ Disaster Relief work

The Central goverment of People’ Republic of China and the State Council attached great importance to the earthquake resistance and relief work. The General Secretary of communist party, Hu Jingtao, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice Premier Hu liangyu made important remarks and required to exert all effort to combat the earthquake and rescue the strained people, as well as to strengthen earthquake monitoring and forecasting work, fulfill all measures for aftershocks prevention and arrange properly affected people’s life to maintain the stability of the earthquake-hit areas. A working team headed by Vice Premier Hui liangyu descended to disaster-hit area for inspection, consolation delivery and instruction of the relief work. The Ministry of Civil Affairs of P.R. China has lunched emergency response and engaged in the following operation revolving around the full guarantee of people’s life:

1. The contingency plan was urgently activated. National Committee for Disaster Reduction and Ministry of Civil Affairs promptly launched the 4th grade response on 8:30 am of April 14th, 2010, and upgraded to the 1st grade at 12 am in consistence with the disaster situation. Mr. Pingfei, the Vice Minister of Civil Affairs of P.R. China joined the working team of the State Council and went down to the disaster-hit area. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Affairs dispatched a disaster assessment team headed by Mr.Liu Yongfa, the disaster relief commissioner, to the on-site of earth quake-hit area to assist the disaster relief work.

2. The working mechanism of the people’s livelihood team was swiftly set up. According to the command of the State Council, the Ministry of Civil Affairs took the lead to set up the people’ livelihood Team under the Emergency Earthquake Resistance and Relief Headquarter of the State Council, and created working mechanism to better carry out the earthquake resistance and relief work. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Affairs launched the joint emergency response mechanism in conjunction with the Ministry of Ministry of Railways, CAAC, and the Ministry of National Defense to coordinate the supply of disaster relief materials.

3. Disaster relief materials were urgently organized. Ministry of Civil Affairs has dispatched 20,000 cotton tents, 50,000 winter clothes and 50,000 quilts from Tianjin, Shenyang, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu and Xi’an central warehouses of disaster relief materials to quake-hit areas in Qinghai to address the difficulties that local affected people encountered. All relief materials were loaded and arrive at afflicted area on April 15.

4. Temporary relief policies for afflicted people were identified. We have initiated temporary relief and resistance operation to the affected people in order to address their life difficulties; 10 yuan emergency allowance and 0.5 kg refined grain per person per day have been distributed in the afflicted area to aid the displaced, people without production materials and without incomes to tackle their basic livelihood problems. In addition, the expended relief effort will be exerted to the orphans, the aged without relatives and the disabled. The needed funds were allotted from comprehensive relief finance subsides of central budget with the total sum of 200 million yuan on April 14.

5. To strengthen disaster information tracking and monitoring. Ministry of Civil Affairs has built direct contact with the counties of disaster affected areas to acquire the information of disaster development and affected people's life arrangements. National Disaster Reduction Center of Ministry of Civil Affairs also activated the "the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters" mechanism (for short CHARTER mechanism) in time, to ensure the acquiring of satellite images of the disaster affected areas timely from related international organizations, and to carry out disaster assessment to provide scientific rationales for decision-making of disaster relief.

ⅢOperation arrangement of next stage。

1. To make the utmost effort to ensure the afflicted people’s life. Based on the need of the affected area, we should urgently transfer tents and other various living materials and provide guidance on a better work to collect and distribute life necessary supplies in order to assist the affected people to address the problems related to shelters and other suchlike difficulties.

2. To deliver a better performance of funeral-related work of the victims. The quake has caused massive casualties and injuries. Under the unified leadership of the local party commission and municipalities, the department of civil affairs at all levels should act in concerted effort to better unfold the rescue work for the trapped people and work effectively on funeral-related affairs as well as settle the consolation affairs in a proper way for the victims’ relatives and families.

3. To strengthen the direction on disaster relief donation work, we need to instruct the China’s Red Cross society, China Charity Federation, and other relevant NGOs to launch a sound relief donation work with establishment and improvement of the statistic regulation. These above-mentioned organizations should proactively enhance the management, application of the funds and track inquires in conjunction with counterpart departments to meet the satisfaction of the affected people.

4. To launch the rehabilitation and reconstruction operations at earliest stage. The further investigation of disaster losses and assessment should be carried out to provide scientific rationales for post-disaster restoration. Meanwhile, we need to offer the instructions on reconstruction work of the collapsed houses and promptly allocate central funds of subsidies for rural housing reconstruction in negotiation of the Ministry of Finance to aid the afflicted people to restore their homes.