Thirty years after one of modern history's most devastating
earthquakes killed 242,000 residents of Tangshan, in north China's
Hebei Province, an international exercise
started Sunday in the province to explore ways of saving lives in
any such future catastrophes.?
The exercise got underway Sunday in Hebei's provincial capital
and sought to test how 18 countries could work together when
earthquakes struck and how prepared were residents to cope with the
aftermath.?
Part of the event, the Asian-Pacific Regional Earthquake
Exercise, is being carried out to commemorate the 30th anniversary
of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. It will end today and it's the
first time that China has hosted the exercise.?
"The Tangshan earthquake occurred at a time when the
International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) did not
exist and the international urban search and rescue community and
governments did not have any globally agreed standards and
procedures," Arjun Katoch, chief of the Field Co-ordination Support
Section of the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA)'s Emergency Services Branch, said at the exercise
workshop.
However, he said, "During the past 15 years, since the creation
of INSARAG the international community has made significant
progress in improving international co-ordination and cooperation
in major disasters particularly with earthquakes."
Katoch stressed that one of the biggest challenges with any
major disaster was the lack of information in the first hours and
days after the event. In particular the national authorities were
quickly under pressure while many international helpers were
arriving and needed to be integrated effectively into national
response activities.
Some 200 participants from China and 17 other countries
discussed Sunday at Shijiazhuang International Airport how they
could best quickly arrive in a country after an earthquake had
occurred and what difficulties they might encounter.?
Afterwards they spent a day in an urban type building to work
out rescue options for various disaster-stricken urban
locations.
Song Sung-jin, international program coordinator of the (South)
Korea Search and Rescue Team, said: "I am here to learn how to
co-ordinate with rescuers from other countries. The exercise will
definitely enhance my ability on how to respond when I am
dispatched overseas."
He stressed that it was essential to understand the
international work mechanisms which came within the United Nations
framework.
An earthquake emergency rescue volunteer team set up by the
Alliance Residential Community in Shijiazhuang, the first of its
kind in China, also participated Sunday. Over 300 community
residents volunteered to be part of the exercise.?
"It will be a total mess if every person does not help others
and only cares about their own interests when an earthquake
occurs," said Li Yanping, a 38-year-old government official acting
as a volunteer in the community. "I believe it's the best way that
volunteer teams help everyone no matter whether it's family members
or others," she said.
Earthquakes are the deadliest form of natural disaster in China,
according to Huang Jianfa, director of the earthquake emergency
relief division of the China Earthquake Administration. Earthquake
fatalities had accounted for 54 percent of natural disaster deaths
since 1949, he said.
(China Daily August 7, 2006)