Getting shelter from the storm

Hit with record rain, the Yan'an city government assists 780,000 local residents By LI JING and ZHUAN TI The torrential rain in July was a big test for Yan'an.迷你倉h e worst storm to hit the city since weather records began 68 years ago affected 13 counties and 158 towns, resulting in economic losses of some 12 billion yuan ($1.96 billion) and putting more than 1.5 million people at risk."It was as much rain in 20 days (from July 3 to 26) as in an average year. h e precipita- tion hit 600 millimeters," said Yao Yinliang, Party secre- tary of Yan'an. "h e disaster not only let behind tremen- dous trauma, but also severe challenges."Despite the devastation, res- cue ef orts directed by the local government restored people'shope.In Baota district, 2,100 oi - cers were deployed to assess the situation. They formed into more than 100 rescue teams and reached seriously stricken areas, according to Qi Yujiang, Party chief of Baota district.In the whole city, 50,000 local oi cials and civil servants have joined the campaign."Oi cials and civil servants at the grassroots level have been working day and night in hazardous locations," Liang Hongxian, mayor of Yan'an.said. "They helped evacuate people, guard houses and feed livestock. "Their tasks were indeed arduous."About 780,000 people were forced to evacuate, with 240,000 of them relocated to more than 500 safe zones."Many residents were unwilling to go when we evac- uated them and they com- plained a lot," said Yao. "But some of their houses collapsed right at er they let and in those cases people showed deep grat- itude to local oi cials and civil servants."To prevent people return-ing to damaged homes, oi - cials installed locks on all the doors, which could have saved many lives."My house collapsed while I was blaming the civil servants of my village who locked up my house and did not let me go in," Ji Zhanyin, a 72-year- old resident, told a local news- paper.He said he could not imag- ine what would have hap- pened if the cadre did not stop him.Despite the collapse of their house, Yan Xincun and Liu Caiying, a couple from Xiangnan'an village, consider themselves lucky."I was angry when the oi - cial woke me up and pulled me out of my ho迷你倉se during the night, but just within a few minutes the house toppled and I was stunned." Yan said.Yao warned "if you are will- ing to evacuate, good for you — if you aren't, we will per- suade you"."We forced a few people to evacuate. You can see from TV that some local civil servants even carried people on their backs to make them leave their endangered houses."Measures In addition, the local gov- ernment reached out to the 240,000 residents who could not return home due to the severe damage.Their measures included sending money to those who needed to rent another resi- dence, helping convert aban- doned schools into temporary shelters and pitching tents.More than 110,000 tents were put into use during the prolonged rainstorm, most of them bought from nearby cit- ies by the local government."We requested that every household pitch a tent in their backyard and in other open spaces," Liu said. "Tents played a signii cant role dur- ing the storm."Many were housed local schools, where almost all teachers returned to help as volunteers.h e local government also deployed medical person- nel to treat the injured. "All the victims have been well taken care of," Yao said. "We ensured they have hot water, food and proper medical care."Roads, power and tele-communications facilities were also severely damaged by the extraordinary rain- storm that triggered l oods, landslides and mudl ows in the city.With mud on their pants and shovels on their shoul- ders, government officials, police and firefighters together conducted flood- fighting drills and rescues in the most dangerous areas to ensure the safety and property of affected residents."h ey cleaned up mud and rocks, and repaired dykes and dams," Li said. "They went wherever they were needed."h e local government made every effort to facilitate the entry of food, tents and other materials."We ensured a smooth traf- fic flow," Yao said. "And wemade sure all villages in Yan'an kept in touch with the outside world so materials could get into the af ected districts.""We had 780,000 residents to evacuate — if we didn't take a good care of them, the situ- ation will be worse and more problems will come up," he said.Contact the writers at zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn儲存倉