Hopes Fade After Landslide Destroys Chinese Village
Xinhua said that The area for rescue work is narrow, and it will be difficult to expand rescue forces to a large scale.
"Earthquakes and heavy rain in recent years have exacerbated the level of geological hazards in our county." The Paper, a news website based in Shanghai, reported
that the village of Xinmo had been listed in 2016 as vulnerable to geological hazards.
By CHRIS BUCKLEY and JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZJUNE 24, 2017
BEIJING — Hundreds of rescue workers tapped, poked and dug through the earth and rubble left by a landslide
that smothered a village in southwestern China on Saturday, looking for signs of survivors among the 100 or more people who were missing.
A county government directive issued late last year counted 769 places across the county vulnerable to landslides and similar hazards.
The village, Xinmo, in Mao County, Sichuan Province, lies in a region of brittle, unstable mountains vulnerable to landslides and tremors.
But the landslide struck around 5:40 a.m. after a night of rain with no warning,
and many residents of the 62 or so homes in the village were apparently sleeping or awakened too late by the roar of a falling hillside.
"He pulled up his wife, carried the child, and as they were running, they were tossed around by a massive roar of air, became caught in the mud
and rocks and then fought their way out of danger," China Central Television news reported, citing Mr. Qiao.