Southern Baptist disaster relief specialists are mobilizing to assess needs in western China’s Qinghai province after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake and several strong aftershocks flattened houses made of mud and wood April 14.
At press time, more than 1,000 people were reported dead and 417 were missing, according to The Associated Press (AP). The AP also reported hospitals were overwhelmed and doctors were in short supply.
Southern Baptists’ disaster relief coordinator for the region is working to get an assessment team into the area, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response. “Initial reports are that the quake was pretty bad, but it did occur in a fairly sparsely populated area.”
Qinghai province is in western China, near the border with Tibet, and foreigners usually are not permitted to travel there by the government. Response also would be hampered by the difficulty of reaching the remote area.
“News reports indicate the Chinese government and military are responding,” Palmer said.
The quake struck along the same fault line that caused the magnitude 7.9 Sichuan quake two years ago. About 90,000 people were dead or missing after that disaster.
Even if Southern Baptist specialists from the United States are unable to travel to the site of this new quake, “we’ll keep monitoring the situation and see if we can send some resources that can be utilized through on-ground contacts in Qinghai,” Palmer said. (BGR)
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