Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 26 June 2017
Scores missing in massive China landslide; 10 bodies found
By HAN GUAN NG and DIDI County, Xinmo has in re-
TANG cent years become a tour-
Associated Press ism destination for its pictur-
MAO COUNTY, China esque scenery of homes in
(AP) — Rescuers recov- lush meadows tucked be-
ered 10 bodies and were tween steep and rugged
still searching for 93 miss- mountains. But after the
ing people on Sunday, a landslide, the village was
day after a massive land- reduced to a vast area of
slide buried a picturesque rubble.
mountain village in south- As heavy machines re-
western China. moved debris and men
More than 2,500 rescuers scoured the rubble for
with detection devices and survivors on Sunday, rela-
dogs were looking for signs tives from nearby villages
of life amid the rubble of sobbed as they awaited
huge boulders that rained news of their loved ones.
down on Xinmo village in “It was as if strong winds
Sichuan province early Sat- were blowing by, or a big
urday. truck rumbled by,” Tang
As of Sunday night, only Hua, a 38-year-old wom-
three people — a couple an from a nearby village,
and their month-old baby told The Associated Press.
— had been rescued from “The houses were shaking, Relatives burn incense and paper offerings to appease the dead at the site of a landslide in Xinmo
the disaster site. as if there were an earth- village in Maoxian County in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, Sunday, June 25, 2017.
Sitting on the eastern mar- quake. We rushed out and
gin of the Tibetan Plateau saw massive smoke. With
in Aba prefecture’s Mao a thundering sound, the realized it was a landslide.” looked this way and saw landslide struck on Satur-
Associated Press
smoke suddenly lifted. We “As we ran for safety, we cued five hours after the
the village flattened,” she day. Qiao Dashuai, 26, told
said. state broadcaster China
Tang has relatives in Xinmo, Central Television that he
but she said little could be and his wife awoke to cries
done at this point. “The from their 1-month-old son
whole village is done for,” at around 5:30 a.m.
she said. “Just after we changed the
The landslide carried an baby’s diaper, we heard
estimated 18 million cubic a big bang outside and
meters (636 million cubic the light went out,” Qiao
feet) of earth and rock — said. “We felt that some-
equivalent to more than thing bad was happening
7,200 Olympic-sized swim- and immediately rushed
ming pools — when it slid to the door, but the door
down from steep moun- was blocked by mud and
tains. Some of it fell from rocks.”
as high as 1.6 kilometers (1 Qiao said his family was
mile). swept away by water as
It buried 1.6 kilometers (1 part of a mountain col-
mile) of road and blocked lapsed. He said they strug-
a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) gled against the water until
section of a river as it com- they met medical workers
pletely wiped away the who took them to a hospi-
village, which was once tal. His parents and other
home to 46 families com- relatives were among the
prising more than 100 peo- missing.
ple. A government-run news
The Sichuan provincial gov- outlet said that Qiao and
ernment said Sunday that his wife were in stable con-
10 bodies had been found, dition on Sunday and that
lowering an earlier figure of their infant was sent to an
15 that had been reported intensive care unit with
by state media. It also low- pneumonia induced by
ered the number of missing mud inhalation.
to 93, saying 15 people on Experts on state media said
an initial list of the missing the landslide was likely trig-
were accounted for. gered by rain. The moun-
There were 142 tourists in tainous region has been
the village around the time prone to geological disas-
the landslide hit, and all ters. In May 2008, a magni-
were alive, said Xu Zhiwen, tude 7.9 earthquake killed
executive deputy governor nearly 90,000 people in
of Aba prefecture. Wenchuan County, 40 kilo-
Three members of a family meters (25 miles) from Mao
from the village were res- County.q