GYIRONG, Xizang, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Even with prior knowledge of the catastrophe, Brazilian journalist Bruno Falci Bitarelli Medeiros was struck by the harsh rescue conditions after a bumpy 12-hour bus ride from Lhasa to the mudslide-hit Gyirong Port in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.
The final stretch wound through rugged mountain roads, unpredictable weather and falling rocks. "It's a very difficult condition for the workers, and I very much admired how they keep searching for people," Medeiros said.
Medeiros was among a group of journalists from international media outlets including CNN, Reuters and NBC who visited the devastated port from Saturday to Sunday.
At a media briefing by the local emergency rescue headquarters, they heard from technical experts and local officials about ongoing efforts on multiple fronts: the search for the missing, victim identification, community assistance and secondary disaster prevention.
The fast-moving chain mudslide, triggered by a high-altitude glacier collapse in Nepal, struck Gyirong Port in Xigaze City on the China-Nepal border on Aug. 26. As of 6 p.m. on Sept. 5, 43 people were confirmed dead and 519 remained missing.
SEARCH GOING ON
At the core disaster zone, a 35-meter-high flood mark, roughly the height of a 12-story building, was scored into the cliff above the ruins.
"Everything below the flood mark was originally underwater," said Norbu Tsering, deputy head of the emergency rescue headquarters and acting mayor of Xigaze City. "Power was gone. What you see now is what we've restored in the past couple of days."
Land access to the port was restored on the morning of Sept. 2, allowing heavy machinery to move in and clear working areas.
Mud deposits average four meters deep in the hardest-hit zone, with some areas reaching 16 meters. Inside the core area, vehicles and machinery are conducting deep-search operations -- excavating, searching and clearing layer by layer during grid-by-grid sweeps.
Konda Jagan Mohan Varma from the Press Trust of India watched the operation. "The glacier breakdown brought down a lot of slush, mud and huge rocks together," he said. "A large part of infrastructure was damaged on both sides, in China and Nepal."
He noted the scale of the rescue effort unfolding around him -- heavy machinery carving through the debris, teams fanning out across the ruins in methodical searches.
Just an hour after the journalists arrived, the valley turned from sunshine to pounding rain, forcing an emergency evacuation. Rescuers have persisted in such conditions for more than 10 days.
As of 6 p.m. on Sept. 5, China had deployed over 2,500 rescue personnel, more than 500 vehicle trips and over 9,000 sets of search equipment, and air-dropped more than 5 tonnes of supplies. Two people from a nearby village have been rescued, and nearly 1,000 personal items have been recovered.
BEYOND BORDERS
After repeated verification, authorities confirmed that 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries, including Nepal, India, Latvia, the United States and Britain, remain missing.
For identification, each body is numbered, photographed and sampled for DNA and dental records at the scene. The headquarters has set up a dedicated identification team. So far, none of the bodies retrieved are foreign nationals.
Responding to a question about the identification process for the missing, Yang Lahong, deputy director of the foreign affairs office of Xizang, said at the briefing that the names and specific information of missing foreigners have not been made public to protect their privacy, but have been shared with the relevant embassies through diplomatic channels.
A 24-hour hotline for families of missing foreign nationals has received 509 calls, with feedback provided promptly, Yang added.
At Nepal's request, the Chinese government has dispatched tunnel rescue and DNA testing experts to Nepal, along with emergency material assistance. Through a China-Nepal disaster prevention information notification mechanism, daily updates on meteorology, hydrology, glacial lakes and glaciers are shared with Nepal.
After the disaster, many Nepalese border residents were stranded in China due to the port closure. Local authorities have seen to the daily needs of 1,720 Nepalese border residents.
Green channels for foreign personnel entry and exit have been opened. A total of 3,388 foreign nationals originally planning to leave via Gyirong Port have been diverted, and authorities have helped 365 Nepalese border residents cross the border to return home.
WATCHING FOR NEXT DANGER
Preventing secondary disasters remains a priority. More than 170 experts and technicians are now monitoring the area with over 150 sets of equipment, including slope radar and drones.
Along the main rescue route, 58 geological hazard spots have been identified, seven of them high-risk.
Hu Bo, leader of the China Anneng rescue detection team, serves as a "sentinel" for frontline workers. When upstream data showed abnormal movement, he sounded the retreat signal. Whistles echoed through the gorge as personnel and machinery pulled back to safety zones.
Hu said such scenarios can happen several times a night.
Muhammad Asghar from the Associated Press of Pakistan observed the monitoring efforts. "The monitoring for secondary disasters is being done tirelessly, day and night," he said.
On the site, Medeiros spotted civilian drones flying to observe potential risks for a secondary disaster.
"The technology today is being very helpful to rescue operations in this disaster," he said. "Some countries use drones for war, but China uses drones to help people."
Medeiros noted that, as global warming is the root cause of the disaster, more concrete actions from the world are needed to prevent these kinds of disasters from happening again, citing China's push for a green economy as an example.
Asghar agreed. "Climate change is not the issue of only one country. The whole world should put their heads together," he said. ■
