Information sharing boosts disaster relief in cold weather

As of Wednesday morning, the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that jolted the Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture in Northwest China's Gansu province and some places in neighboring Qinghai province at midnight on Monday had killed 131 people-113 in Gansu and 18 in Qinghai — with 16 still missing in Qinghai.

The country has upgraded the national disaster-relief emergency response to Level II for the earthquake. Over 736 rescuers from the projects of central enterprises in nearby areas, as well as 2,042 firefighters, have been sent to the quake-hit region, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

It is good to hear that national rescue teams, medical workers from Beijing, Sichuan province and other places, and epidemic disease prevention and control staff arrived in Linxia and nearby hard-hit areas within 24 hours of the quake happening, along with some social rescue and disaster relief personnel and organizations.

More relief supplies are also being rushed to the disaster-affected areas that are remote and sparsely populated places in the rugged mountainous region to the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The ministry said the third batch of relief goods, including 2,000 cotton tents, 5,000 rollaway beds, 5,000 overcoats, and 10,000 quilts, have been allocated to Gansu.

The traffic administrative departments in neighboring provincial-level regions, such as Shaanxi province and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, have given a green light to all the rescue and relief vehicles heading to the earthquake-stricken areas, exempting their expressway tolls, to help them reach their destinations as soon as possible.

Although the first round of rescue work had been concluded by Wednesday morning, there is still more that needs to be done to avoid any secondary disaster, and better take care of the hundreds of injured and about 90,000 people evacuated from their homes.

The biggest concern right now is the low temperatures at high altitudes. The meteorological department forecasts that the local temperature will be-14 C to 1 C over the next three days, and the northwest wind there will be between level 3 and level 5. The harsh weather conditions are a tough test to those living in the temporary shelters and tents in the disaster-affected areas, as well as the rescuers.

Previous disaster relief experience shows that due to a lack of disaster information data sharing, there is often a misalignment between donated materials and local needs. For example, bottled water and instant noodles are piled up in resettlement sites, but there are very few trauma drugs and antibiotics, which are urgently needed.

According to local governments, the supplies that are currently needed in the disaster area include generators, thick coats, stoves and fuel, food, heating facilities, women's sanitary articles, etc.

The local governments in Gansu and Qinghai should manage well the allocation of relief supplies and rescue personnel according to the practical needs of the people.