CHENGDU, Aug.19-- Over the past few days, China’s western and southwestern areas including Sichuan, Chongqing, Gansu and Shaanxi have seen frequent heavy rains and floods. In response to the urgent disaster relief situation in many places, the PLA Western Theatre Command and the local provincial governments, based on the principles of deploying troops as quickly and reasonably as possible, dispatched a commanding team to the disaster relief area to coordinate the disaster relief operations.
In Sichuan Province where there are many disaster-stricken areas and the most serious flood situation, a large number of people were trapped in the ancient town of Huanglongxi in Chengdu city. One hundred troops assigned to a brigade under the PLA 77th Group Army quickly assembled and formed two groups to transfer the trapped elderly people in a nursing home and rushed to many places to carry out blanket search and rescue. As of August 17, they have safely transferred more than 600 people and over 20 tons of materials.
When the peak of the Minjiang River passed through Leshan city, more than a thousand people were trapped on the Leshan Giant Buddha Dam. Two hundred service members from a brigade under the 77th Group Army, 100 members from the Leshan Detachment under the People’s Armed Police Force (PAP), and 210 militias from the Leshan Military Sub-Command formed a joint search and rescue team to carry out multiple emergency rescue missions.
At present, the troops under the 77th Group Army as the main force, as well as rescue forces from the Sichuan PAP and the Sichuan Provincial Military Command are still fighting on the front line of flood resistance in Chongqing, Leshan, Neijiang, Mianyang, Meishan, Yibin, Ya'an and other areas.
At the same time, disasters such as landslides and mudslides occurred in many counties in Longnan, Gansu Province. The Longnan Military Sub-Command dispatched more than 2,000 militias to continuously investigate various hidden dangers, patrol dangerous dikes, fill sandbags, reinforce dikes, and evacuate people in the rain.
In Lueyang County, Shaanxi Province, there were piles of silt and rubbish everywhere after the flood peak. The PAP Hanzhong Detachment and the members of the local People's Armed Forces Department carried out such work as removing silt, cleaning up garbage, and cleaning the street to help local people restore the order of production and life.
As of 5 pm on August 17, the Joint Command Center under the PLA Western Theatre Command had dispatched more than 10,700 troops and more than 490 units (pieces and sets) of various types of rescue equipment, relocated more than 63,000 people affected by the disaster, and transferred more than 1,790 tons of materials.