Rescuers brave chill, race against time to save lives

Efforts: Six medical teams at hospital treating injured

A bowl of piping hot beef noodles and a cup of drinking water at a relief camp on Tuesday offered Ma Mengke the warmth and comfort he desperately needed after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake jolted him and his family members out of sleep around midnight on Monday in Northwest China's Gansu province, and left them without a home overnight.

"My family is safe here. We have blankets and stoves to stay warm and boil water. The members of the rescue team care for our needs," said Ma, 27, at the relocation site in Jishishan county, the epicenter of the quake in Gansu's Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture.

The makeshift camp, located at the town square, has 102 tents, each of which can accommodate eight to nine people. Ma and 1,000 other residents of the county, whose houses were damaged or destroyed in the quake, spent the night in the tents.

They received meal boxes provided by local authorities and beef noodles cooked by volunteers from a private company.

Ma Qinglong, chairman of Xingda Group, the private company, said, "We prepared 500 kilograms of beef today (Tuesday) to help everyone get through the difficult time."

Meanwhile, rescue teams braved the winter chill to continue their search for survivors. The substantial difference between day and night temperatures in Jishishan made the search and rescue operation more challenging.

Wang Duo, a team leader from the Gansu Houtian Disaster Rescue Center, said the minimum temperature is around -10 C, and those trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings are at great risk.

Liu Xuefeng, deputy head of Gansu's Forest Firefighting Department, said his 200-member team was among the first responders. The team arrived in Jishishan county as early as 2 am on Tuesday.

Liu said that residents grabbed whatever warm clothes or heating equipment they could and ran out of their homes when the quake hit. Many houses were badly damaged, he added.

At the local hospitals, doctors also raced against time to save lives.

Yang Huyong, deputy director of the intensive care medicine department at the People's Hospital of Linxia, said they were treating over 100 patients, aged 2 years to 79 years, as of 5 pm on Tuesday. The hospital has over 100 ICU beds.

Nine surgeries have been performed, and there are more than 30 cases classified as severe or critical, Yang said, adding that the serious injuries included cranial trauma and fractures.

Currently, there are six medical teams comprising over 40 personnel providing support at the People's Hospital of Linxia, while nurses have been mobilized from other hospitals.

In addition to government efforts, people helped one another survive the ordeal.

At the Gaji Chunlei Primary School in Liugou township, 79 boarding students were escorted to the playground by their teachers as soon as the earthquake hit the area.

Zhang Shunshan, the school's vice-president, said the teachers lit charcoal fires and used quilts to keep the children warm through the small hours. "We later contacted the parents and helped the students get back home safely by 10 am," Zhang said.

Gansu's earthquake relief headquarters has started a level-two quake emergency response, local authorities said.