Disaster relief efforts underway after 5.1-magnitude quake hits China's Yunnan

KUNMING -- A 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Qiaojia county in Southwest China's Yunnan province on Monday evening. As of 2 pm Tuesday, the quake had damaged 1,540 houses and prompted the evacuation of nearly 300 residents.

No casualties or building collapses were reported. Disaster relief efforts are currently underway in an orderly manner.

The earthquake struck at 7:32 pm at a depth of 10 kilometers. As of 2 pm Tuesday, 297 people from 129 households had been relocated to temporary shelters, local officials said.

"The shaking was intense. I was on my phone when suddenly everything started swaying violently. I immediately shouted for the whole family to run out of the house," recalled Zhao Kunyun, a resident in Hongshiyan village, located in Baogunao township of Qiaojia county -- the epicenter of the earthquake.

After the quake, the water storage tower outside Zhao's house collapsed, cracks appeared in the courtyard's retaining wall, a section of the vegetable garden's ridge gave way, and the water cellar began to leak.

"Just now, experts from the provincial level came to inspect my house. They said the main structure was fine and that the house was safe. That immediately put my mind at ease," Zhao said.

The Hongshiyan village office has been turned into a temporary shelter for affected residents following the earthquake. "Just 30 minutes after the earthquake, the village officers brought my family here. We've had no issues with food or accommodation, and we feel very reassured," noted Qian Zhenzhen, a villager who commented while playing with her three-year-old son at the village office.

"As of 2 pm Tuesday, we had inspected a total of 63,000 residential houses. Among them, 1,540 were damaged, primarily showing minor cracks in production facilities and auxiliary structures. So far, no reports of collapsed residential buildings have been received," said Cao Shanyou, deputy head of Qiaojia county.

Some rural roads were damaged, but there have been no reports of casualties or vehicle damage. A total of 19 mountain cracks and 262 instances of minor rockfalls have been identified, Cao revealed.

"Currently, local authorities are conducting thorough inspections at full capacity, aiming to complete the comprehensive assessment of this disaster impact within the day," Cao added.

According to the Yunnan Provincial Department of Finance, in response to the quake, the department has urgently allocated 5 million yuan (about $714,224) in provincial emergency relief funds to support the city of Zhaotong, which administers Qiaojia county, in carrying out disaster emergency response, hazard elimination, secondary disaster prevention, reconstruction of damaged houses and assistance for affected residents in need.

The China Earthquake Administration activated a Level-III emergency response after this earthquake in Yunnan and dispatched working teams to the affected area to support local relief efforts.

China has a four-tier emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe response.