YUSHU, China (Reuters) – China’s premier flew to the Tibetan plateau yesterday to oversee feverish rescue efforts after a strong earthquake, but crews held out little hope for residents trapped in freezing weather under the rubble of homes, schools and monasteries.
The death toll from Wednesday’s 6.9 magnitude quake climbed to 617. Nearly 10,000 were injured and Gyegu, the seat of Yushu country, was devastated.
Premier Wen Jiabao clambered up a tower of rubble from a crushed building and addressed a large group of the city’s shaken and hungry residents.
“As long as there is the slightest hope, we will make efforts that are 100-fold,” he told the crowd, speaking through a bullhorn in comments also translated into Tibetan.
“Your disaster is our disaster, your suffering is our suffering,” said Wen, who postponed his trip to Myanmar, Brunei and Indonesia for next week. President Hu Jintao cut short his visit to Latin America because of the earthquake.
Wen was not given the rapturous welcome that he often receives in predominantly Han Chinese regions. But after he spoke, the crowd, including Tibetan Buddhist monks, applauded.
He shook hands with at least one monk. Many Chinese were deeply touched when he visited quake sites in Sichuan province following a tremor that killed 80,000 there in 2008 and personally encouraged rescuers and those trapped under the rubble, which earned him the nickname “Grandpa Wen”.
Rescuers this time struggled with the high altitude and chilly winds which whip the remote region at this time of year. Tents have sprung up around a statue of a warrior on a horse in Gyegu, home to most of the region’s 100,000 people. Monks dug with shovels as soldiers handed out rice and gruel to survivors.
When police handed out sachets of instant noodles at one tent camp, locals rushed with outstretched hands to grab the bags. “What we urgently need are tents, quilts, cotton-padded clothing and instant food,” Zou Ming, disaster relief director from the Civil Affairs Ministry, told reporters in Beijing. Tent supplies had been allocated but not yet fully shipped, he added.
“The main problem now is lack of transportation, and it will take time for them to arrive at the staging area.”
Nearly 1,000 people were seriously injured, the Xinhua news agency said, quoting a spokesman with the rescue headquarters in the ethnically Tibetan town. Hundreds remain unaccounted for.
