Relatives of mudslide victims reach compensatory deal

CHENGDU - The relatives of 40 people who were killed or went missing in a rain-triggered mudslide that occurred in Southwest China's Sichuan province on June 28 have signed compensatory deals with the victims' employer, the local rescue command center said Friday.

Torrential downpours unleashed a mudslide at a construction site for the Baihetan Hydropower Station on Jinsha River in Ningnan county. So far, 20 bodies have been recovered and rescuers are searching for another 20 missing people, officials at the command center said.

The station's staff and relatives made up the entirety of the victims, leading Sinohydro Bureau 4 Co., Ltd., which won a bid to build the station, to sign compensatory agreements with the surviving relatives, officials said.

Each family will receive 451,940 yuan ($70,909), said Ye Yingting, whose husband went missing in the mudslide.

The compensation for both the deceased and missing victims is the same, said Wang Shiping, an official from China Three Gorges Corporation, which supervised the station's construction.

A total of 1,350 rescuers are searching for the missing along the Jinsha River, a major river located upstream of the Yangtze River. However, the rescue may end soon, as the chance of finding survivors or bodies is very slim, the command center said.