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 In China’s sparsely populated Xinjiang region, earthquakes rarely cause injury or damage; human habitation is spread too thinly across the remote, northwestern landscape. The exception is a cluster of villages in the region’s Bachu County, where last week a powerful quake toppled nearly 8,000 houses, killing at least 268 people and injuring 2,051.
The magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 8:03 a.m. while many victims were at home having breakfast. "The situation is really critical, “said World Vision relief officer Meimei Leung. “Most of the houses were flattened by the quake. Even the brick houses collapsed, and fallen debris caused most of the injuries.”
The Chinese government rushed food, medical supplies and tents to the disaster area, located 2,000 miles west of Beijing, near China’s mountainous border with Kyrgyzstan.. Over the weekend, snow and sleet hampered relief efforts, leaving at least 16,000 people without proper shelter in sub-zero weather.
World Vision has positioned a four-person relief team in Bachu County to distribute food and assess damage. The team plans to distribute flour to 10,000 quake victims and to help rebuild schools. World Vision has pledged $62,500 (U.S.) toward relief and rebuilding efforts.
“Many families have lost loved ones,” Leung said. “I was talking with a group of four sisters when they all broke down in tears. They told me that another sister had been killed in the quake, and their mother had been hurt. They were crying because they didn’t know how to tell their mother the bad news.”
World Vision China began quake relief operations in the Xinjiang region in 1997. The Christian humanitarian organization has maintained an Area Development Program (ADP) in the region’s Hotan County since 2000.
China’s deadliest earthquake – and the deadliest quake of the 20th Century -- struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976. The magnitude 7.8 quake killed an estimated quarter million people.
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