M6.6 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEAR YA’AN CITY, SICHUAN PROVINCE, CHINA UPDATE 5 APRIL 24, 2013

1. M6.6 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEAR YA’AN CITY, SICHUAN PROVINCE, CHINAUPDATE 5APRIL 24, 2013 Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, Vienna, Virginia, USA 

2. DAY 1 THE DIMENSIONS OF A DISASTER UNFOLD IN A MATTER OF MINUTES TO HOURS, BUT THE DETAILS ARE UNCERTAIN FOR DAYS TO WEEKS

3. 8:02 AM, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013 • The M 6.6 earthquake was generated by rupture on the same fault zone that generated the May 2008 earthquake. • The earthquake struck a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province near Ya’an City (pop. 1.5 million) on Saturday morning killing at least 208 and injuring about 12,000.

4. LOCATION MAP

5. YA’AN CITY: 1.5 MILLION PEOPLE

6. SHALLOW DEPTH • The earthquake was generated by rupture further south than in 2008 on the Longmanshan fault zone, the same fault zone that ruptured in the May 2008 earthquake. • A relatively shallow focal depth of 12 km (7.5 miles) made the ground shaking more destructive.

7. EPICENTER CLOSE TO THE MAY 12, 2008 QUAKE’S EPICENTER • The epicenter was close to the epicenter of the MUCH LARGER M8.0 earthquake that killed 88,000 people and damaged millions of buildings on May 12, 2008.

8. Premier Li Keqiang flew to Ya'an to direct rescue efforts, and, seeking to avoid the huge death toll of 2008, he and President Xi Jinping ordered officials and rescuers to make saving people the top priority

9. CAUSE OF THE DISASTER:: THE SAME AS IN 2008--INADEQUATE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN INADEQUATE BUILDING CODE

10. INITIAL REACTIONS • When the earthquake occurred, many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast. • People in their underwear and wrapped in blankets ran into the streets of Ya'an and even in the provincial capital of Chengdu, 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Lushan.

11. BUILDINGS WERE NOT CONSTRUCTED TO WITHSTAND THE STRONG GROUND SHAKING, WHICH REPORTEDLY LASTED A MINUTE IN LONGMAN

12. INITIAL IMPACTS • The earthquake toppled buildings, triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections and water service in mountainous Lushan county. • The village of Longman was hit particularly hard, with nearly all the buildings being destroyed.

13. Pandas panicked during the earthquake, but the well-known Bifengxia panda preserve, which is 50 km from the epicenter, was not damaged by the quake.

14. DAMAGE

15. QINGREN TOWNSHIP: DESPERATE RESCUE EFFORTS

16. DAMAGE

17. EVACUATING WITH BARE NECESSITIES

18. BAOSHENG TOWNSHIP: CHILDREN IN EVACUATION CENTER

19. Day 2:SUNDAY, APRIL 21 A DAY OF FRUSTRATION

20. FACTORS CAUSING THE FRUSTRATION • RAIN, LANDSLIDES, IMPASSABLE ROADS, TRAFFIC JAMS, DEBRIS, AFTERSHOCKS, AND RESTRICTIONS SLOWED SEARCH AND RESCUE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE, - - - • AS TIME ON THE “48 HOUR GOLDEN PERIOD FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE CLOCK” TICKED AWAY.

21. LANDSLIDE

22. LANDSLIDE

23. THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT CHOOSES NOT TO ACCEPT OFFERS OF INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE AND ALLOCATED 3 MILLION YUAN ($480,400) TO SEARCH AND RESCUE AND RELIEF EFFORTS.

24. The government had mobilized thousands of soldiers and others — 7,000 people by Saturday afternoon, 18,000 by Sunday — sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies

25. THE REALITY • Along the main roads, ambulances, fire engines and military trucks piled high with supplies waited in long lines, some turning back to try other routes when roads were impassable. • To move, rescuers were forced to dynamite boulders that had fallen across roads, or to run past them.

26. FATAL ACCIDENT :TWO RESCUE WORKERS FALL OFF CLIFF

27. RESCUERS HAD TO RUN PAST ROCK FALLS ON WAY TO STRICKEN AREA

28. LUSHAN: ROCK FALL, SURVIVORS, AND RESCUERS MEET

29. TRAFFIC

30. WATER SUPPLY DANGEROUSLY LOW • Even as Chinese Red Cross’ relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment were moving as quickly as possible to the disaster areas, officials were predicting that drinking water in Ya’an City area would run out in 3 days.

31. PART OF 48 HOUR “GOLDEN PERIOD” FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE UNAVAILABLE • With roads blocked for several hours by landslides, the military surveyed the disaster area by air while waiting. • Aerial photos showed individual houses in ruins in Lushan, outlying villages flattened into rubble, and the roofs of some taller buildings shaken off, exposing the floors beneath them.

32. AERIAL VIEW OF DAMAGE

33. OVERWHELMED BY THE DISASTER

34. SURVIVORS SLEEP OUTSIDE • Fearing further damage from aftershocks, wary survivors slept in cars or makeshift beds outside their damaged homes in Ya’an City and Longman.

35. STUDENTS SLEPT IN CAR TO MINIMIZE AFTERSHOCK DANGER

36. LIVING IN MAKE-SHIFT TENTS

37. PREPARING TO SLEEP OUTSIDE

38. SEARCH AND RESCUE UNDERWAY

39. SEARCH AND RESCUE: LUSHAN

40. EVACUATION OF A SUVIVOR

41. YA’AN: AN EMERGENCY RELIEF CENTER

42. Day 3:MONDAY, APRIL 22 DESPERATE SEARCH AND RESCUE CONTINUES AS THE “GOLDEN PERIOD” ENDS, AND TIMELY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE TO MEET BASIC NEEDS INTENSIFIES

43. HELPING 1.72 MILLION PEOPLE • On Monday, relief and rescue efforts continued in the broad area around Ya’an City in Sichuan Province, where, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 1.72 million people were impacted.

44. STUDENTS, UNCERTAIN ABOUT THEIR SAFETY, MEET OUTSIDE

45. FINALLY, rescuers on foot reached Baoxing County, the area hardest hit by the quake, at 1 p.m. Monday.

46. RESCUE CREWS REACH BAOXING COUNTY

47. A RESCUE

48. In the race to find survivors in the rubble before it was too late, rescue workers had to contend with over 2,000 aftershocks that threatened every hour to trigger new landslides and topple already damaged buildings.

49. A RESCUE: YA’AN

50. LUSHAN COUNTY: RESTORING WATER SUPPLY • Some of the water supply in Lushan County, the district where the quake's epicenter was located, was restored, reducing the potential crisis and providing about 100,000 residents with water when needed most.