Official explains difficulties in quake rescue

Frequent aftershocks and scattered victims are making search and rescue work following the Ya’an earthquake more difficult than the quake in 2008, said Xie Wuzhong, director of the political department of the Sichuan provincial military command, in a comment to CRI Online.

"More than 8,000 military soldiers have been sent to disaster areas including Lushan, Baoxing and Qionglai (county) as of Sunday morning,” said Xie, who was on site to instruct rescue workers. "So far the progress is going well.”

Xie attributes the frequent aftershocks and scattered victims as the two biggest problems facing the rescue work. Though the earthquake magnitude isn’t as powerful as the Wenchuan quake, the difficulties in aid and relief have not abated, he said.

"Unlike the Wenchuan quake, the Ya’an earthquake did not collapse whole blocks of buildings, but the earthquake destroyed more than 90 percent of local buildings,” said Xie.

"Local residents in Lushan live apart from each other as it’s a mountainous area, while disaster areas such as Beichuan and Mianzhu during the Wenchuan earthquake were more resident-concentrated,” he said.

More than 100 people have been rescued by soldiers from the Sichuan provincial military command. Xie said they have plenty of people, and superiors said they will not increase rescue forces.