A magnitude 6.2 earthquake jolted a remote and mountainous region on the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau just before midnight on Monday, killing at least 118 people and injuring hundreds. The epicenter was in Gansu province, and the quake also shook neighboring Qinghai province, causing buildings to collapse and cutting power and communication lines. In a region with few roads and no mobile networks, getting help to those trapped by the disaster has been difficult. Chinese state media has shown footage of entire villages split in two by the tremors and residents huddling over makeshift fires at hastily erected evacuation camps. The region is among the poorest and most sparsely populated in the country.
Rescue work has proved challenging in subzero temperatures. Tents, folding beds, and quilts are being sent to the disaster zone, and the government has urged locals to stay indoors to avoid traffic jams that could hamper the efforts. At the epicenter in Jishishan county in Gansu, some 230 people were still missing by Tuesday morning, and the provincial emergency management department said 111 dead had been confirmed. It warned that the death toll could rise significantly.
The quake wrecked roads and infrastructure, triggered landslides, and half-buried a village in silt. Homes were destroyed, and more than 100 buildings were reported damaged. The quake was felt as far away as the capital of Gansu, Lanzhou, where students were seen lingering outside their dormitories wrapped in down jackets after the quake.
At a hospital in the city of Lanzhou, some 180 km from the quake’s epicentre, doctors treated the wounded and asked people to stay inside to prevent a traffic jam that would hinder their efforts. At least 30 aftershocks followed the quake, with some measuring over magnitude 5.
In the village of Qinghai, the quake triggered a mudslide and left houses half-covered in brown silt. Rescuers have deployed drones, excavators, and bulldozers to search for survivors in the rubble.
China’s government swiftly mobilized an array of emergency responses after the quake, sending military personnel and supplies to the region. However, the remote location of the disaster area and the fact that landslides had blocked many roads made it difficult to deliver heavy equipment such as cranes and excavators. Meanwhile, residents and volunteers have been digging through collapsed structures by hand in search of survivors. Some villagers have turned to traditional Tibetan sky burials, in which corpses are left to be eaten by vultures because they cannot afford funeral costs.
The quake is the most powerful to hit this part of northwestern China in 13 years. At least 107 people were killed, and thousands more were injured in the 2008 earthquake that rocked the same region, according to state media. The aftermath of that disaster is still fresh in the minds of many residents. Some are wondering whether to rebuild the devastated town at its original site or relocate it entirely.
