Bad weather hampers rescue effort

By Nick Mackie
Dujiangyan

Many survivors have been sleeping out in Dujiangyan

I arrived here in the middle of the night, it was pitch black, there is no power at all in the town, but you could still make out that many of the buildings were badly damaged.

Some had collapsed.

There are workmen and soldiers working away, trying to clear the debris from some collapsed buildings, trying to see if people were underneath.

And there are hundreds if not thousands of people just sleeping out in the streets under tarpaulins, because we had torrential rain all through the night. So that is going to hamper the relief efforts during the course of the day.

Ambulances and taxis

The bad weather has made it difficult for rescue teams to get to the worse-affected areas.

But fortunately the main highway from Chengdu to Dujiangyan is not too bad.

There is particular concern about young children

It's pretty clear, you can see ambulances driving up and down and taxies which have been requisitioned to ferry people to the big city and back.

You can get into Dujiangyan; however getting into the more remote areas is difficult, roads are very badly damaged, so that's a job for the military.

The rescue teams are trying to find those who may be trapped and need to be rescued - life comes before everything else.

But there is also concern about people in the towns who are having to sleep rough, out in the streets, because in weather like this the old and the very young can become sick very easily.

Aftershocks

Dujiangyan residents are wary of fresh aftershocks

Ten minutes ago I felt another aftershock at a petrol station - that's not a very nice place to feel an aftershock, with all the petrol around - and I've felt three aftershocks in the past three hours.

The police are mobilised, the army are mobilised, other civilian agencies are mobilised - a concerted effort is under way, but time will tell how effective it is. They are up against the elements today so we will have to see how they get on with it.

The Sichuan people have fantastic characters. There is a calmness, and there is even a bit of banter and humour among people sleeping rough in the streets.

But as soon as there is an aftershock, they are up and moving as far away from the buildings as possible.