Ensuring Safety in a Busy and Orderly Way——Information about Heilongjiang Wuchang Transfer and Resettlement Site
Xinhua News Agency, Harbin, August 5th
Another bus came, and there are more people in this group.” At 11:50 on August 4, a staff member hurried into the dormitory building of Yachen Middle School in Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, and informed everyone to get ready. A few minutes later, a bus full of displaced people from Minle Township in Wuchang stopped in front of the school dormitory.
Affected by the typhoon “Dusuri”, the rainfall in Wuchang City has exceeded 100 millimeters for several consecutive days since August 2, causing large and medium-sized reservoirs and rivers in the territory to exceed the flood limit water level, and many towns were affected. Yachen Middle School in Wuchang City was used as a centralized resettlement site for the masses.
Chen Lihua, the principal of Yachen Middle School, said: “We received a notice at 5:00 p.m. on the 3rd to requisition the school as a resettlement site. At 8:00 p.m. we welcomed the first batch of relocated people, and by 11:30 p.m., 258 people. The school can accommodate up to nearly 1,000 people, and the relocated people are still coming in batches, and about 40 teaching staff have come to help organize the people to line up, register, and allocate rooms.”
According to Cui Xing, deputy director of the Wuchang City Emergency Management Bureau, Wuchang City has prepared more than 1,200 rooms in 23 hotels and more than 10,000 beds in 27 schools for backup, and coordinated the storage of relevant living materials and medical materials for transfer and resettlement in an emergency victims. At present, some resettlement sites have been set up in urban areas and townships, among which five resettlement sites have been set up in urban areas, and Yachen Middle School in Wuchang City was the first to be opened. As of the 4th, about 20,000 people had been transferred in Wuchang City due to rainfall. Most of the transferred people chose to seek refuge with relatives and friends, and some went to centralized resettlement sites.
“Don’t worry, get off slowly, we have accommodation and food here.” People from Minle Township got off the bus one after another, and the staff were already waiting in front of the bus. In the hall on the first floor of the dormitory building, although the crowd is bustling, they are busy and orderly. The two staff kept asking “name, phone number, which village they are from,” and after a while, everyone’s room was allocated.
On the second floor of the dormitory building, the reporter met several villagers who gathered to chat. Li Yanjun, 53 years old this year, said that his family of four came from Shuangfeng Village, Zhiguang Township, Wuchang City. “I was notified in the middle of the work and came here in a hurry without any luggage. Fortunately, the resettlement site provided bedding and other daily necessities.” Li Yanjun said, fortunately, he left in time. The water comes up before the water overflows and the people have not walked away.”
The reporter noticed that in the resettlement site, in addition to the school staff, there were also officials from the CDC and the disaster-stricken towns and towns, and a number of medical staff were also deployed. According to Wang Tao, deputy director of the Wuchang City Center for Disease Control and Prevention, they are mainly responsible for guiding the resettlement site’s drinking water and food sanitation, garbage disposal, and disinfecting and epidemic prevention in living areas. “The weather is hot and people are concentrated, and the resettlement sites must pay attention to sanitation and epidemic prevention. Once the water in the village is withdrawn, we will go to guide the village’s disinfecting work.”
In a dormitory that was temporarily used as an office, the reporter met Jin Changyue, chairman of the People’s Congress of Weiguo Township, who was checking the personnel information of the resettlement site. “There are 6 villages in our township, and 4 of them were affected by the disaster. On the night of the 3rd, 102 people were transferred here for centralized resettlement.” Jin Changyue said that the township had formulated a plan in advance, and the villagers were more cooperative. It took just over two hours to complete the registration at the resettlement site.
Wang Guilan, a 76-year-old Xingsheng villager, came to the resettlement site on the morning of the 4th. When the reporter saw her, she was in the dormitory waiting for the staff to deliver the bedding. “I’m getting old, and it takes a lot of effort to climb up and down, so they brought me the bedding and made it up for me.” Wang Guilan said that although she didn’t meet anyone she knew at the resettlement site, she felt quite at ease. It was past the time for breakfast at the resettlement site, but when they heard that I hadn’t had breakfast, the staff brought me bread and porridge. I was worried that I couldn’t find my way back to the village in a few days, so they also said they would deliver I’m going back.”
At around 12:00 noon, a van delivered the lunch of the day, and a box lunch was delivered to each dormitory by the staff. The reporter saw that there were potatoes stewed beef, roasted eggplant, and so on for lunch that day. At 1:20 noon, Chen Lihua told reporters that the number of people in the resettlement site had increased to 348.
At this time, another batch of transferred and resettled people came to the resettlement site, and the staff performed their duties and kept busy.