The Chinese government has pledged to provide a relief fund worth around $4.4 million to be given to the country's Guizhou province in light of the recent disaster that hit the region earlier in the week.
On Wednesday, the government announced that it would be giving its full support to help in the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts following a massive landslide that hit a village in China's southwestern region.
According to state media reports, the landslide hit the village of Pingdi in the Shuichen county on Tuesday evening. Rocks and mud managed to bury more than 21 houses within the village. Rescue workers have so far recovered 14 dead bodies from the scene, but dozens more are still missing.
The landslide occurred after a week of heavy rain was experienced in the area, weakening the soil in the hills and mountains above the village.
Rescue workers who had immediately responded to the incident managed to save 11 people that were buried under the heavy rocks and mud. Local residents and authorities have revealed that there could still be as many as 42 more people under the rock and mud, eight of which were people who were merely visiting the village when the landslide occurred.
Around 800 rescue workers, along with 20 diggers and a hundred vehicles were dispatched by authorities to the area to help in the recovery operations. By Wednesday evening, rescue operations were still ongoing, but the efforts proved to be very difficult as heavy rain continued to pour, threatening further landslides in the area.
The landslide was estimated to have involved around 2 million cubic meters or 70.6 million cubic feet of mud and rock. The massive amount of soil buried the village up to five meters or 16 feet, completely covering some of the houses.
Some of the houses managed to escape the path of the landslide. Casualties were fortunately minimized as most of the residents were still at work outside the village when the landslide happened.
Following the incident, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued an order to local officials to improve their respective region's monitoring and early warning systems. Xi relayed his order specifically to the country's Ministry of Emergency Management, the agency responsible for the country's work safety and emergency rescue.
The president also promised the government of Guizhou that the country will be giving its full support for the rescue and recovery efforts of those who are still trapped beneath the mud and rock.
