Four people were reported missing Wednesday following a mudslide in
mountainous Badong County, in Central China's Hubei Province,
according to a local source.
"The police are working with the urban construction authority to
find the missing," said Zheng Jun, a reporter with the county
television station.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by the lack of access to those
believed to be most affected.
The Yangjiaping Village, which sits at the highest altitude of all
the county's villages, is believed to have bared the brunt of the
damage, but has been isolated with all roads leading to the village
blocked by heavy mud and rock.
There were more than 700 people in the village when the mudslide
occurred, said Zheng.
Zheng cited the county government's preliminary estimation, that as
many as 2,000 of the county's total population of 50,000, including
both permanent and temporary residents, have been affected by the
geological disaster.
The mudslide was triggered by two days of heavy rainfall across the
county, which cut off electricity supplies, suspended transport
lines, damaged sewage pipelines and turned residential districts
into marshes.
The county started returning to normal Wednesday afternoon with mud
and rock debris cleared from main streets.
"People are back on the streets. The transport network has resumed
business as usual," said Zheng.
But the work to clear up the countryside is expected to take more
time.
The Ministry of Land and Resources will dispatch officials to
Badong Thursday to check the situation there and help local people
prevent more such disasters.
This is the second time that the county has been hit by a severe
landslide. The first time was during the 1980s, when the county was
still at its original location.
The original site of the county, or the Old Badong as many people
refer to it, had been completely deserted by the end of March, two
months before it is scheduled to be submerged under the newly
stored water of the Three Gorges reservoir on June 1.
Zheng said the landslide in the 1980s caused more damage to
housing.
"The Old Badong is much smaller than where we live now, and the
houses were more crowded. When the landslide occurred, the damage
was heavy," said Zheng.
(China Daily April 3, 2003)