The Beijing News: Why did you want to evacuate these people from the city?
Li: Because the big risks were hidden and because there were too many people. The first problem concerned stability; this posed a great challenge to public security. The second concern was the shortage of food and water. At that time, we could only provide solid food to the victims. Although the local mineral water companies worked day and night to provide free drinks to the victims, we lacked adequate drinking water.
Also, accommodating that many people was a huge challenge. We set up 26 temporary settlement centers around the city. Victims were everywhere.
The Beijing News: Many victims seemed unwilling to leave the city.
Li: Yes. Many victims had escaped with literally nothing in their hands so they probably felt safer here near the local government.
We held an emergency meeting on the evening of May 14. We proposed to evacuate victims who entered the city after May 15 to nine of the lesser hit quake towns.
The Beijing News: How did you solve the food and accommodation problems?
Li: Disaster aid and relief materials arrived in succession. We took the initiative of cooking porridge in big cauldrons and doling it out to the victims. This alleviated the food shortage.
However, we were still short of disaster relief materials at that time. Some of the victims who were evacuated out started living in rural areas that had enough food; their living conditions were obviously better than those in the city. They served as a good example, so gradually some of the victims in the city began to move out toward designated areas and towns.
Li stunned when criticized
The Beijing News: After the earthquake, some blogs posted on the Internet criticized the Shifang government.
Li: I saw that because we had set up 10 groups for various kinds of disaster relief and one of them was specifically meant to collect information.
Some of the victims who lost their loved ones did not think that our aid was quick enough.
The Beijing News: How did you react to these comments?
Li: Actually, after the earthquake, I found our officials to be very active. Many of them did their best to save victims trapped under rubble of buildings instead of helping their own family members.
The Beijing News: Some of the surviving families still did not understand.
Li: The first emergency aid site I arrived at was the Longju School. Many children died there, I was also very sad.
The parents felt deep sorrow and I understood that. However, we did do our best to start emergency aid operations as soon as possible. The problem was that the transportation routes were blocked, so huge earth moving machines couldn't pass freely. We could only use our hands to save the victims under the debris.
The Beijing News: Did you have any grievances?
Li: It's nothing; time will tell. Still, I understand the parents' feelings. I understand them.
Li feels gratified knowing his wife serves as a volunteer
The Beijing News: Seeing so many deaths and shouldering so much responsibility, how do you feel now?
Li: I feel very, very sad. I didn't feel sad at the loss of property but I cried several times when I saw so many people and children die.