Society

Disaster relief under way in Sichuan

By Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-22 07:03

GUANG'AN, Sichuan - Liao Guizhen, a thin, short, gray-haired woman, looked pained after emerging from her three-story house on Wednesday morning, throwing a huge basket of silt to the street.

"When the water level returned to normal this morning, I returned home with my son and daughter-in-law to remove it," the 71-year-old retired teacher told China Daily.

On Sunday, excessive rain had swelled the upper reaches of the Qujiang River and, as of late Monday night, water levels exceeded 9 meters above the warning level.

By early Wednesday, all that remained was silt.

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Liao was one of 230,000 people who were evacuated during the city's biggest flood in more than 160 years.

Most residents returned on Wednesday with the exception of a small number of evacuees from the countryside that remained in tents after their homes were destroyed.

Zhang Mu, a farmer in Muqiao village in Zaoshan was one of them. He said the government had provided food and mineral water for the flood victims.

Liao, too, said officials promised to help after she lost all her appliances.

Zheng Can, an information officer in Guang'an, said the local officials would also offer flood victims food subsidies. Tax cuts, he added, would also be made available to affected businessmen.

They are badly needed. Indeed, among the 50 streets swamped in Guang'an, more than 10 were vibrant shopping streets. "The economic losses were enormous," Zheng said.

Yuan Xianfeng, the city's chief information officer, said his city's direct economic losses were some 4.6 billion yuan ($676 million).

Some 10,000 soldiers, policemen, government workers and local volunteers also mobilized to clear silt from the streets.

Dozens of health workers, meanwhile, have been dispatched to spray disinfectant in streets and homes over the course of the coming week, Zheng said.

While authorities were relieved at the lack of casualties, they were distressed that the area's worst flood since 1847 had ruined the city's cultural relics.

Landslides triggered by the flood buried the city's Confucius Temple. Waters also submerged the famed Xingguo Temple that dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD) for more than 20 hours along with other many Buddhist statues.

Xiaoxi, a town built in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), known for its riverside scenery, wooden structures ancient bridges, temples and flaggings was likewise a victim.

An initial investigation indicated that the city's cultural relics had suffered a loss of 20 million yuan ($2.9 million), according to officials.