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.