Presentation courtesy of Dr Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction

1. OVERWHELMED BY THE
DISASTER

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

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

4. 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.

5. LOCATION MAP

6. YA’AN CITY: 1.5 MILLION
PEOPLE

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

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

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. DAMAGE

16. QINGREN TOWNSHIP: DESPERATE
RESCUE EFFORTS

17. DAMAGE

18. EVACUATING WITH BARE
NECESSITIES

19. BAOSHENG TOWNSHIP:
CHILDREN IN EVACUATION CENTER

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

21. 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.

22. LANDSLIDE

23. LANDSLIDE

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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.

27. FATAL ACCIDENT :TWO RESCUE
WORKERS FALL OFF CLIFF

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

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

30. TRAFFIC

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. AERIAL VIEW OF DAMAGE

34. OVERWHELMED BY THE
DISASTER

35. 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.

36. STUDENTS SLEPT IN CAR TO
MINIMIZE AFTERSHOCK DANGER

37. LIVING IN MAKE-SHIFT TENTS

38. PREPARING TO SLEEP OUTSIDE

39. SEARCH AND RESCUE
UNDERWAY

40. SEARCH AND RESCUE:
LUSHAN

41. EVACUATION OF A SUVIVOR

42. YA’AN: AN EMERGENCY
RELIEF CENTER

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

44. 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.

45. STUDENTS, UNCERTAIN ABOUT
THEIR SAFETY, MEET OUTSIDE

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

47. RESCUE CREWS REACH
BAOXING COUNTY

48. A RESCUE

49. 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.

50. A RESCUE: YA’AN

51. 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.

52. FIRST CALL FOR NATIONAL
AND INTERNATIONAL
DONATIONS

53. The high point of Chinese philanthropy
was reached after the May 2008
earthquake, which devastated large
sections of Sichuan and nearby
provinces, wiping out entire villages,
killing 88,000, and injuring many more.

54. DAYS 4-5:
SEARCH AND RESCUE EFFORTS
ENDING
RELIEF EFFORTS INTENSIFY WITH A
FOCUS ON THE NEEDS OF THE
HOMELESS AND NEEDY SURVIVORS

55. RESCUE EFFORTS
• Rescue crews rescued 150
survivors from the collapsed
buildings during the “golden
72-hour period.”

56. SCOPE OF CURRENT
RELIEF EFFORTS
• Power was restored to 179,600
households affected by the earthquake,
leaving about 7,000 without electricity.
• After setting up 1,151 tents, crews are
beginning to set up 30,000 more that
have just arrived.
• 1,827 tons of water have arrived in the
area for distribution.

57. BAOSHENG TOWNSHIP:
TEMPORARY TENTS

58. PRELIMINARY DIRECT
ECONOMIC LOSS:
MORE THAN 10 BILLION
YUAN (USD $1.6 BILLION)