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U.S. Relief Funds Assist Xinjiang
Earthquake Victims An
April 2003 report from Embassy Beijing. U.S.
Embassy officers visited earthquake-ravaged Bachu and Jiashi counties near
Kashgar in extreme western China March 31-April 2, 2003 to observe the deployment
of U.S. Government disaster relief funds. A $100,000 U.S. Government donation has been effectively
utilized by the Chinese Red Cross to purchase much-needed food, bedding, and
large tents to serve as temporary classrooms in this impoverished minority
area. Quake
Collapses Mud Brick Houses A
magnitude 6.4 earthquake, as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey, occurred
in an arid agricultural region 100 kilometers east of Kashgar in Western
China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region at 10:03 a.m. on Monday, February
24, 2003. (The Chinese
Seismological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the quake
as magnitude 6.8.) The area is
an impoverished farming area inhabited primarily by members of the Uighur
Muslim minority. Typical housing
is mud brick, and thus almost all of the 268 fatalities came as a result of
being crushed to death when houses collapsed. U.S.
Help Used for Tents, Bedding, and Food for Uighur Muslims U.S.
Embassy officers visited the area five weeks after the quake, subsequent to
the immediate response phase.
Emergency rescue crews had finished their work, rubble from fallen
houses was being cleared and repairs had begun in some places. The earthquake's devastating impact,
however, was widespread and obvious, and cleanup was still taking place. The
U.S. Government donation of $100,000 was channeled through the Red Cross
Society of China and was used to buy wheat flour, large tents, and small
carpets. Uighurs, the Muslim
minority who predominate in the area, routinely use carpets as bedding and as
an essential household item to ward off the cold. The Red Cross said that the $18 four-by-six foot carpets
were highly appreciated by people made homeless by the earthquake. Their nylon tents provide little
relief from the cold earth and March nighttime temperatures in the 40's. Residents
are using the flour literally for their daily bread. The flour was delivered in large bags
stamped with the message "Donated by the United States
Government" in Chinese characters. In
addition to the thousands of collapsed houses and shops, almost every school
near the epicenter was a complete wreck, according to officials. We visited two schools that were
flattened. Further away from the
epicenter, we saw children attending class outdoors. Large tents purchased with U.S.
Government funds will serve as temporary classrooms until the schools can be
rebuilt. An emergency school
break has been declared. In the
meantime, piles of desks are waiting on the playground. While
the physical damage was severe, and the death and injury of thousands of
people is keenly felt, local people felt that they were spared a much worse
catastrophe because the earthquake happened while many people were outside. If the quake had hit 30 minutes later,
said one official, children would have been inside at class and there would
have been many more casualties.
(Note: All of China is on Beijing time, but Xinjiang uses Beijing time
plus two hours as local time.) Roads,
Water Supply, Telephones, Electricity In Good Shape Infrastructure
was damaged but not completely destroyed. Roads were in good shape, but the quake ripped up water
pipes in some areas and toppled water towers. Some residents have to depend on daily deliveries of
drinking water using fire department tanker trucks. Telephone and electricity supplies were damaged in places,
but at the time of our visit, those systems had been repaired almost
everywhere, according to local officials. Relief
Coordinated Through Emergency Coordination Center The
local government is coordinating assistance at an emergency center in an
undamaged municipal building in the center of Bachu City. Workers there assign tasks and manage
the receipt, storage and distribution of relief goods. When we visited the town, a meeting
with 70 people was underway in a large tent on the plaza of the office
complex. We
were told universally that local garrisons of soldiers and paramilitary
People's Armed Police (PAP) units responded quickly to the disaster, arriving
on site within a few hours.
While some shortcomings were identified, in general both local
officials and residents were pleased with the speed and scale of government
assistance. The army and PAP
provided manpower that addressed immediate needs such as search and rescue,
and transportation of injured persons. The
Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) is the government's disaster response
bureau. In Xinjiang, they
focused in particular on coordinating delivery of tents, since housing was
not only heavily damaged but was also critically important in the
sub-freezing temperatures of the Central Asian winter. Most of MCA's pre-positioned disaster
relief supplies are stored in central China for responding to floods, so getting
them moved to the far edge of western China posed serious logistical
problems. An earthquake search
and rescue team, part of the Seismology Bureau, took to the field for its
first real response following this earthquake. They have vehicles specially equipped for lifting
collapsed buildings and extracting people. Government
Assistance for Rebuilding Houses Almost
no one has property or medical insurance in Bachu and Jiashi counties, where
average incomes hover around $100 a year. Consequently, the demands on the provincial and central
government for assistance are heavy.
Local government officials report that they are completely tapped out
financially. We were told that
government grants to the homeless would vary from $250 to $1200, depending on
the amount of damage to the home.
This, according to different sources, can represent anywhere from 25%
to 90% of actual costs, depending on the construction materials used for
rebuilding. A
county administrator crisply ticked off the steps that residents should go
through to have their damage claims certified and compensated. He added that no grants would be
forthcoming unless the recipients build their new homes to higher
standards. He said that the
government does not want to repeat this assistance following the next
earthquake. This is an earthquake-prone
area. This
disaster hit the poor the hardest.
In an area already struggling with low incomes, residents must now
find money and time to rebuild their houses and shops. |