China Mobile’s emergency repair crews have worked around the clock, sleeping in the open, trudging for kilometres over difficult terrain and enduring downpours. To sustain their energy, some have lived off only two biscuits a day and mouthfuls of water from mountain streams.

Despite all these hardships, another 30 China Mobile technicians from outside Sichuan Province have pledged to overcome their own fears to help remote communities in southwest China’s earthquake zone reconnect with the outside world.

The third emergency team is comprised of technicians from Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan and Shandong provinces. They left for Sichuan Province on the evening of May 22.

They will join another about 560 China Mobile technicians from around China who have been working in Sichuan to help local staff restore urgently needed communications links. About 20 emergency communications vehicles have also been sent to the area, but they can only get as far as roads are available, while many remain blocked.

Some isolated towns and villages are still unable to contact the outside world 11 days after the devastating May 12 earthquake.

The first China Mobile team was deployed on the evening of the earthquake to Dujiangyan City. The next day, helicopters airlifted China Mobile staff and soldiers into Pingwu and Qingchuan counties, where communications were severed completely.

China Mobile emergency crews have managed to reach most of the worst-hit areas and blocked villages by foot and air, despite their own lack of food, water and shelter.

The China Mobile staff airlifted to Wenchuan shared their food and water with local people. They rationed themselves to two biscuits a day and murky stream water. They worked in Niunaozhai Village in Wenchuan, for six days.

After the earthquake, the Sichuan provincial government ordered telecommunications operators in the region to restore services as quickly as possible in 109 worst-hit towns and villages. China Mobile was responsible for 70 of those locations. The last village on the list had communications restored on May 22.

The third China Mobile crew from outside Sichuan will accompany troops to other remote villages.

Preparing for the harsh environment and conditions, they were reminded that their own safety is paramount. They were told to remember lineman Liu Jianqiu, who was fatally injured in a landslide in Lixian County on May 16, and died in hospital the next day.

Relative News