China News
Villages Left With Little After Yunnan Quake
Blocked Roads Leave Some Largely Cut Off From Aid in Southwest China
By Josh Chin
Aug. 6, 2014 12:30 p.m. ET
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The death toll from Sunday's 6.1-magnitude earthquake in China's Yunnan province jumped to least 589 people Wednesday. WSJ's Ramy Inocencio asks China Editor Carlos Tejada in Beijing for the latest.
YINPING, China—This devastated village in southwestern China illustrates why the death toll from an earthquake three days ago has risen quickly—and why it could rise still.
China on Wednesday raised the death toll from Sunday's 6.1 magnitude earthquake in southwestern China's Yunnan province to 589 people from 410 the day before. Chinese authorities said blocked roads and disrupted communications made it difficult to access certain areas, contributing to a slow count.
An additional 2,400 were injured, authorities said, and 229,700 had been relocated.
Rescuers made progress after construction workers replaced a collapsed bridge with a temporary steel one, helping supplies pour into the village of Longtoushan, the epicenter of the quake. That allowed rescuers to reach out to more remote hamlets.
Still, many smaller villages are accessible only by single narrow roads that were buried or swept away by landslides. Further rescue efforts are likely to be hampered by rain, which threatened to fall on and off in parts of the area Wednesday, while Chinese authorities warned of the potential for strong aftershocks in the coming days.
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A woman salvaged a photo album from the debris of her home in Longtoushan, the epicenter of the quake. Reuters
Yinping, a village of several hundred people that depends on growing corn and potatoes, represents the challenges rescuers face. The village lies 2½ hours on foot from Longtoushan, accessible only by dirt paths. Its thick vegetation and mountainous terrain make it hard to bring in stronger construction material such as steel, resulting in local homes made out of less-sturdy stuff.
The earthen walls of many of its homes crumbled during the quake, which hit Sunday afternoon local time. It wasn't clear how many of the residents were dead or injured. In one cluster of 200 people and 37 families, 12 people were killed, four were seriously injured and another was missing, residents said. They said an additional 20 had died nearby.
Despite a massive effort involving thousands of military personnel and rescue workers, aid hasn't reached Yinping as fast as residents needed.
Rescuers arrived to dig out the living and the dead here Monday, but the work was slow. "We pulled three children out today," said resident Qi Zhongcheng, pointing to a makeshift tomb erected on top of the remains of one house out of corrugated tin and broken tree branches. "That one was 15."
But supplies have been slower. A shipment of instant noodles came Wednesday afternoon. Before that, residents said, there was no food other than some grain scraped together from collapsed houses, some potatoes dug out of the ground and preserved pork they salvaged from the rubble. By Wednesday night, they were still without bottled water.
Some rescue workers left tents, but they sat unused Wednesday night. The rescue workers had told residents the tents were unsafe because of falling rocks from distant cliffs. Also, there weren't enough to go around, and nobody appeared to want to take advantage.
Mr. Qi said the lack of help had left them feeling anxious about being forgotten.
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Children eat noodles Wednesday outside a tent set up for earthquake survivors at Longtoushan, in China's southwest Yunnan province. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
"We're happy to have you here to report as long as it means the government knows we don't have anything up here," one villager said after journalists arrived.