Five successive typhoons swept through southern and central China between May and July, killing hundreds of people and destroying hundreds of thousands of homes.

Despite the losses, there is consolation in the fact that better forecasting, pre-emptive evacuations and other preparations reduced the loss of life compared to 10 years ago when lesser typhoons, storms and floods resulted in high numbers of casualties.

As relief and donations arrive, people in disaster-stricken areas are cleaning up the debris and working out ways to rebuild their homes and lives. But many villagers cannot forget the few people - as common as themselves - who sacrificed their own lives to save others.

Among them, Wang Shuxian, 74, was from a Yongding County village in East China's Fujian Province. The retired soldier saved the lives of 18 fellow villagers during a heavy downpour but was so exhausted after his efforts that he fell into the fast-moving flood water.

Likewise, Cao Yanlin, a village group leader, began to knock on his neighbours' doors at 7 am on July 15, when he received the evacuation warning as Typhoon Bilis swept through Hunan Province. Ignoring his own house, he went around every home in the village, even returning to cajole a few stubborn villagers as the hill behind the village began to shake.

He made a head count and ensured that 109 villagers were gathered in the safety area. Only then did his neighbours remind him that his twin sons and his mother were not among them. He rushed back to his home, only to be smothered along with his twin sons and mother in a landslide.

While we mourn these heroes and vow to work harder to repay their self-sacrifice, their deaths also offer lessons for us to ponder.

I believe that mutual help is more important than individual's self-sacrifice.

And this "mutual help" is not an empty phrase or lofty spiritual pronouncement. Nor is it similar to the vow of "All for one, one for all," made among Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers.

It should be a group effort developed through serious drills, similar to the exercises we now go through to escape fire or shelter against earthquakes in urban centres.

In the media reports we've heard far more about heroic individuals than examples of how villagers organized themselves effectively and helped each other reach safety in the face of impending danger.

In the examples above, there were apparently no drills or discussions on how the village as a group - or how a few dozen strong-bodied village men and women - should co-operate to safeguard their own lives in times of emergency.

In the case of Cao Yanlin, one villager even recalled seeing Cao's son in his home looking for his father, but that villager obviously didn't think to take this boy along with his family to the safety area.

Aside from mutual assistance, discipline is also important. If all villagers quickly heeded Cao's command, Cao might have had time to get back to his sons and mother.

But discipline is sadly lacking, not only in villages but also in cities.

For instance, when rainstorms wreaked havoc in Beijing on Monday, a section of the expressway heading to Beijing International Airport was submerged to an average depth of 1.2 metres. The whole expressway remained jammed for eight hours.

The airport management and municipal water management authorities have been criticized for a lack of preparedness.

However, the public and the media have missed one detail: it took an emergency maintenance vehicle three hours to travel through 15 kilometres of traffic to arrive at the flooded section with pumps. The emergency lane on the expressway was fully blocked by other vehicles eager to get out of the jam.

Across the country, vehicles can often be seen driving in reserved lanes but only in times of emergency do we see how this serious violation of traffic regulations impedes public works and harms public welfare. What if there had been lives at stake?

It is really time we thought through all of this and I believe developing mutual assistance and enforcing discipline is the best way to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for others.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/03/2006 page4)