Xi urges all-out rescue efforts
The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level IV emergency response to the earthquake. Under China's four-tier emergency response system, Level I represents the most severe response.
The ministry said in a news release that it had sent a team headed by Min Yiren, chief of the China Earthquake Administration, to guide disaster relief work in Luding.
Wang Xiangxi, minister of emergency management, arrived at the ministry's command center soon after the quake to coordinate disaster relief work, according to the release.
Officials from the Ganzi prefectural government said at a news conference on Monday that damage to roads, communications facilities and homes was being checked. The prefecture sent 635 rescue personnel, including armed police officers, firefighters, medical workers, communication professionals and power technicians, to carry out rescue and relief work, they said.
Five seconds after the earthquake, a real-time early warning system developed by the Institute of Care-Life in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, said that seismic waves would reach Kangding, the capital of Ganzi prefecture, seven seconds later, the city of Ya'an, adjacent to Luding, in 20 seconds, and Chengdu in 50 seconds.
Kangding is 53 km from the epicenter, while Ya'an is 99 km and Chengdu is 226 km away from it.
In many parts of China, the real-time early warning system operates on TV sets and mobile phones, which people can use in case of an earthquake.
The system sends warnings seconds after an earthquake is detected and can help save lives because the warnings are transmitted via radio waves, which are able to travel at 300,000 kilometers per second, while seismic shock waves travel at only 3 to 6 km/s, according to Chen Huizhong, a senior researcher at the China Earthquake Administration's Institute of Geophysics.
Mountainous Sichuan is prone to earthquakes. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake killed more than 69,000 people, with 17,923 others reported as missing.
Hou Liqiang and Du Juan in Beijing contributed to this story.
Contact the writers at huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn
