Life has returned to normal in Danba County of southwest China's Sichuan Province, which suffered a major mud-rock flow on July 11, as intensified efforts have been made to rescue trapped victims and rebuild the destroyed facilities.

Supplies of water and electricity are available in most of the areas which were struck by the disaster, said Yang Guoyuan, Party secretary of Danba County.

According to Yang, soon after the disaster occurred, the county government allocated over 25,000 kg of grain to alleviate the food shortage for victims and built 16 tents for residents who were left homeless or were forced to relocate because of the disaster.

Six km of water pipeline have been installed in the mountainous areas. Water has been available since late Tuesday in Shuikazi Village in Badi Township, which was the worst hit by the mud flow, and except for six households, power is also available in the village.

Rebuilding the damaged infrastructure remains an arduous task, said Yang, noting that there is no power in two other villages in the county, affecting 500 people, and the provincial highway destroyed by the rock and mud flow will take at least two months to reconstruct.

The departments of communications in Sichuan Province have organized manpower to build a temporary path to the area, said Yang.

When two mud-rock flows rolled down from the mountains into the Qiongshan Ravine, 33 km from Danba County, last Friday night, a get-together was being held in a holiday village. Only a dozen people fled successfully and 51 others were swept away.

By late Tuesday, two bodies had been found. The deceased were a female tourist from Shanghai and a resident of the village, whose body was identified by relatives and later buried.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2003)