SALVATION ARMY disaster relief workers are bringing aid to those left homeless after an earthquake devastated parts of Yunnan province in south-west China.
An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale killed and injured many people in Ning'er County on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (southern Yunnan Province) on 3 June, levelling tens of thousands of homes and causing at least 180,000 people to be evacuated. It has been reported that over half-a-million people have been affected in the region.
A Salvation Army emergency relief team already in place has been joined by additional personnel from Hong Kong. The team is working in coordination with the HKSAR Government, local relief agencies and the mainland relief authority, distributing food, drinking-water, milk powder and blankets to address the immediate needs of the survivors. The Salvation Army will also work with the local disaster relief agencies to assess the needs of the affected communities and has committed to providing long-term assistance in the region.
The relief operation has been made more difficult because of heavy rains that fell in many parts of the region soon after the earthquake, making some roads impassable because of mud. Salvation Army relief workers have only recently been able to reach some of the more remote mountain areas, where the usual habitation is a two-storey wooden house raised on stilts – the lower floor for livestock and the upper for grain storage and accommodation. Many of these houses have collapsed as a result of the earthquake, mixing the grains stored on the upper floor with sand, mud and rain. Consequently, the survivors are facing a serious food shortage.
The Salvation Army is appealing for financial support for its relief operations in Yunnan Province.
