Gansu holds mourning events for victims of 6.2-magnitude earthquake

A mourning event for the victims of the 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Jishishan county, Northwest China's Gansu Province was held on Monday morning, while impacted areas in Gansu and neighboring Qinghai Province are gradually resuming school, work, and production, striving to restore everyday life.

The earthquake has claimed more than 100 lives to date.

The mourning ceremony was held in Daheshan town, Jishishan, where the earthquake hit the hardest. Representatives of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Armed Police, others attended the event. All participants removed their hats and stood in silence for three minutes to mourn the victims, and laid flowers. Mourning events were also held simultaneously in three other severely affected towns.

The earthquake has killed 32 people in Haidong city in Northwest China's Qinghai Province as of Sunday, according to the provincial bureau of emergency management. The Gansu government said 117 people had died, with 781 injured during the earthquake as of Friday morning.

Rescue and re-settlement of the injured and earthquake victims remains ongoing. The National Health Commission said on Sunday that all those injured have received timely and effective treatment, adding that medical services in the disaster area have returned to normal.

Local government in Gansu said that as of Sunday, Jishishan county has established 48 resettlement points, and erected over 7,500 temporary houses.

Six days after the earthquake, impacted areas are gradually resuming school, work, and production, striving to restore everyday life. On Sunday, some shops in the county town of Jishishan had begun to reopen. The education bureau in Jishishan county also said that primary and secondary schools in the county will gradually resume classes.

Meanwhile, the education bureau in Qinghai also said last week that schools were ready to resume classes. Local media reported that 451 schools already restarted offline teaching.

Gansu's agriculture and rural authority said on Saturday according to preliminary estimates, the earthquake caused a direct economic loss of 532 million yuan ($74.55 million) to Gansu's agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishery industry.

Ma Yandong, an official from Gansu's housing and urban-rural development, township construction authority said that collapsed and severely damaged rural houses in this earthquake were mostly older structures, mainly consisting of self-built houses and auxiliary buildings constructed by villagers.

These houses are mostly made of earth and wood or brick and wood structures, with load-bearing walls made of earth or bricks. The connection between the walls and the wooden frame is weak, as the overall integrity is weak, making them less resistant to high-intensity earthquakes, Ma told Xinhua News Agency.

"In recent years, Jishishan county has been promoting the renovation of rural dilapidated houses to solve the safety problems of the main residential houses," said Ma, noting that these newly built or renovated rural houses have not collapsed.

Experts say that the earthquake has highlighted the urgency of improving the seismic resistance of dwellings located in rural areas.