Life has returned to normal in Danba County of southwest China's
Sichuan Province, which suffered a major mud-rock flow on July 11,
as intensified efforts have been made to rescue trapped victims and
rebuild the destroyed facilities.
Supplies of water and electricity are available in most of the
areas which were struck by the disaster, said Yang Guoyuan, Party
secretary of Danba County.
According to Yang, soon after the disaster occurred, the county
government allocated over 25,000 kg of grain to alleviate the food
shortage for victims and built 16 tents for residents who were left
homeless or were forced to relocate because of the disaster.
Six km of water pipeline have been installed in the mountainous
areas. Water has been available since late Tuesday in Shuikazi
Village in Badi Township, which was the worst hit by the mud flow,
and except for six households, power is also available in the
village.
Rebuilding the damaged infrastructure remains an arduous task, said
Yang, noting that there is no power in two other villages in the
county, affecting 500 people, and the provincial highway destroyed
by the rock and mud flow will take at least two months to
reconstruct.
The departments of communications in Sichuan Province have
organized manpower to build a temporary path to the area, said
Yang.
When two mud-rock flows rolled down from the mountains into the
Qiongshan Ravine, 33 km from Danba County, last Friday night, a
get-together was being held in a holiday village. Only a dozen
people fled successfully and 51 others were swept away.
By
late Tuesday, two bodies had been found. The deceased were a female
tourist from Shanghai and a resident of the village, whose body was
identified by relatives and later buried.
(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2003)
