Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A9

January 13, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Relief botch-up spurs regional pool of rescue resources

By Xu Wenwen | January 13, 2014, Monday | Print Edition

When the torrential rains of Typhoon Fitow hit in October, Xu Lijun and other volunteer rescuers took to waterlogged roads to deliver relief supplies to areas such as Yuyao in Zhejiang Province, where nearly 70 percent of the city was flooded.

When the water got too deep, they called for speedboats. When they could go no farther by boat, they had to call for cars again. That was fine until the floodwaters again got too deep.

The disaster relief itself was somewhat of a disaster, in part because neither volunteers nor the local government had much experience in flood relief — especially since precipitations were an added amount of water equal to 68 West Lake, inundating 80 percent of the city areas.

There were transportation problems posed by varying terrains, a lack of relief supplies and an inadequate distribution system, too few relief workers, and inadequate information for flood victims.

As the rains abated after three days, many residents were still trapped in their homes for two days without power or fresh water. Yuyao government has been accused of reacting too slowly to the crisis.

“We need a professional water rescue team, but in addition, a non-governmental one,” Xu said he and his team members decided after experience with the typhoon.

Xu is the leader of Hangzhou Ramunion League, a volunteer rescue team that specializes in saving those lost or injured in the mountains. Xu is used to overcoming obstacles in his job as a facilitator for Outward Bound — which improves team-building by putting people in challenging environments in nature.

But October was the first time the rescue league worked in a flood.

“Volunteer power is required to supplement government during natural disasters,” said Xu, a veteran volunteer.

Two months after Fitow, the Urban Flooding Emergency Rescue Conference opened in Shanghai, with 37 volunteer rescue organizations from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai represented. The Ramunion group was one of the leaders.

The conference was sponsored by Civilian Disaster Relief Collaboration, a network put together by the Shanghai United Foundation charity, the national Huaxia Commonweal Service Center, and the new Yangtze River Delta City Rescue Partner Circle.

“The collaboration is to link volunteer rescue teams in different places for disaster preparedness. Each team can cultivate their own volunteers, but all volunteers can work together to fight disasters,” said Zheng Yilin, president of Huaxia Commonweal Service Center.

Also, the collaboration functions as a platform where volunteers in different places can share material and technical resources, train each other, and recruit new hands and ask for help.

For now, it is active only in the Yangtze River Delta.

All teams are asked to play to their strengths when helping each other, so no matter what challenge pops up, the collaboration can quickly organize the most qualified volunteers from anywhere in the Yangtze River Delta for rescues.

The model is effective: Last month, the Ramunion League in Hangzhou and the Yellow Mountain Rescue Team in Anhui Province worked together to save a Shanghai hiker lost in Gu’niujiang Mountain in Anhui Province.

But few knew what to do in a flood before the conference.

“It is agreed that professional water rescue capability is a must, since severe flooding has occurred in many cities including Beijing,” Zheng said.

The flooding rescue conference was held to see how volunteers could help before the next flood happens.

Those who have professional water rescue skills will train volunteers in more than 10 teams in Zhejiang Province who meet the qualifications, such as good swimming and driving skills and being physically strong.

The water rescue training exercises are expected to start in the spring, with competition among the teams from the Yangtze River Delta in May or June.

Also local governments are helping by inviting foreign experts to train volunteers as well.

The volunteer team’s works not only include saving lives and delivering emergency food and water, but also how to educate the public and work with the police.

“People in Yuyao were scared when the floods caused power outages. They had previously received an orange alert, meaning the electricity will be cut off, yet few knew what it meant,” Zheng said.

Huaxia Commonweal Service Center is printing manuals to impart such information to areas in Zhejiang Province vulnerable to flooding and storms.

Also, the center plans to distribute radios that can be charged by a hand crank in every village in Zhejiang that is vulnerable to flooding, “so they at least can get information from the outside world if there is a blackout,” Zheng said.

The collaboration effort also is working on a virtual “Society Warehouse” in which enterprises willing to donate can pledge the quantities and qualities of donations they would be willing to give should a disaster strikes.

“A trained team contributes to unified and effective action,” Xu said, adding that the teams will use the experience they had in Yuyao so they know what to avoid.

 

Hangzhou


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend