China landslide: 39 people have died, and five are still missing

According to Chinese official media, the number of fatalities from a landslide in a remote, mountainous area of southwest China increased to 39 on Thursday. Five individuals were still listed as missing.

The catastrophe occurred early on Monday in the northwest Yunnan province town of Liangshui.

Despite the frigid temperatures and snow pouring, search and rescue activities persisted.

Excavators, drones, and rescue dogs were assisting more than a thousand rescuers at the scene, according to a Tuesday statement from the Ministry of Emergency Management. On Monday, two survivors were discovered and were doing well at a nearby hospital.

The collapse of a steep clifftop area caused the landslide, according to state news agency Xinhua, which cited a preliminary investigation by local experts. The collapsed mass measured approximately 100 meters (330 feet) wide, 60 meters (200 feet) high, and had an average thickness of 6 meters (20 feet). It didn’t go into detail on what led to the first collapse.

Several hamlet dwellings were covered by the slope of a steeply terraced mountain, as shown in aerial photographs released by Xinhua. Over nine hundred villagers were moved.

With elevations as high as 2,400 meters (7,900 feet), Zhenxiong County is located around 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) southwest of Beijing.

Snow, slick roads, and below-freezing temperatures—which were expected to last for many days—presented challenges for rescuers.

Many sections of China have seen heavy snowfall, which has disrupted transportation and put lives in risk.

Over 1,000 people were stranded in a remote skiing location in northwest China for a week due to many avalanches caused by severe snowfall, but last Thursday, rescuers managed to evacuate the visitors. In a town near China’s borders with Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan in the Xinjiang area, the avalanches shut down routes, leaving both locals and visitors stranded.

At least three people were killed and significant damage was inflicted by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck a rural area of Xinjiang on Tuesday in the middle of frigid temperatures. Authorities proposed that the low death toll from the “very strong” earthquake was caused in part by the area’s scant population.

Approximately 345 billion yuan ($48 billion) in direct economic damages were incurred by China as a result of natural disasters last year, leaving 691 persons dead and missing. This information was provided by the Ministry of Emergency Management and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction. In the meanwhile, a team of specialists was sent to the location by the Ministry of Natural Resources, which also put emergency reaction plans for geological catastrophes into action.