Society

Altitude challenging to rescue work

By Xie Yu and Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-15 07:50

Beijing - Rescue workers in Yushu county, hit hard by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday morning, are facing an even more challenging task, as its high altitude above 4,000 meters will make the rescue effort more grueling.

He Xiong, director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, who took part in the relief effort in Sichuan following the 8 magnitude Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008, said relief and rescue in earthquake-hit areas of high altitude are "a more physically and technically demanding task for relief workers, due to a shortage of oxygen on the plateau".

According to official statistics, the oxygen content in Yushu is nearly half to one-third lower than that at sea level.

Liu Xiangyang, deputy chief of the National Earthquake Disaster Emergency Rescue Team, told China Daily on Wednesday that his team is aware this mission is going to take place in a special circumstance and "all the rescuers have psyched themselves up".

He said: "We once attended a rescue in 2005 when an avalanche attacked Qinghai province. We have some experience in working in high altitude regions."

Liu's team includes 60 search members, a medical team of 30, as well as 20 experts and officials from the China Earthquake Administration (CEA). They took with them 10 tons of equipment, including detectors, nine sniffer dogs and two vehicles equipped for relief work.

According to sohu.com, Liu's team arrived at Yushu airport at 7 pm on Wednesday and immediately started to work.

Prior to their arrival, a 15-member rescue team from the CEA left Beijing at 11:40 am on a flight to Qinghai.

Three volunteers also set out from Xining, capital of Qinghai, 800 km from Yushu, to offer their assistance along with the 40,000 yuan they raised in donations.

He Xiong stressed that volunteers who are not professionally trained are not encouraged to go to the site, as everyone is not suited for labor-intensive relief work on a plateau.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force deployed three planes to transport rescue workers and relief supplies to Yushu.

Two Il-76 aircraft will airlift rescuers and equipment from the national earthquake rescue team in Beijing, while another will carry 100 rescuers from China's mine exploration team, stationed in Chengdu, to the quake-hit Yushu prefecture.

The PLA Air Force also ordered 1,500 of its forces and 100 parachute troops to prepare to assist in the rescue operation.

The neighboring Lanzhou military command sent one of its top medical teams, which specializes in high-altitude operations, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The armed police headquarters ordered 600 officers, stationed in Yushu, to take part in rescue work and 2,100 more officers in Qinghai were placed on standby, according to a police spokesman.

In addition, a 62-member rescue team from the earthquake department in Qinghai was en route to Yushu, while 40 rescuers had been dispatched from Qamdo, in neighboring Tibet, Xinhua said.

Rescuers in neighboring Gansu, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, and Ningxia were also on the way to the region, Xinhua said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

China Daily