China Earthquake Report #3

The rescue and relief efforts after Saturday's southwest China Ya'an earthquake is continuing with the number of lives lost officially at 188 people, 25 are missing and 11,460 injured. While radio amateurs continue to help with relief efforts, Fan Bin BA1RB says that public communication is back to normal in the disaster area.

He said the CRSA/CRAC no longer required 3855kHz, 7050kHz and 14270kHz as emergency communication frequencies. It expressed thanks for the support from IARU member societies and others during the disaster. It rained in the earthquake area last night. Effective traffic control has been very important to transport tents, water, foods and medicines into the area.

The rural communities around Ya'an city are along the same seismic fault where the Great Sichuan Earthquake killed more than 90,000 people five years ago, in one of China's worst natural disasters. The latest earthquake on Saturday left tens of thousands of people in tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued.

Badly hit Lushan County is now a large refugee camp, with tents set up and volunteers providing meals.

(Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman of the IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications
Committee with help of Fin Ban BA1RB)

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