Final report — Qing­hai province earthquake
The 7.1 Richter scale earth­quake that struck Chi­na’s Qing­hai province on 14 April killed more than 2,000 peo­ple and relief efforts are con­tin­u­ing for those left home­less. A day of nation­al mourn­ing was held on 21 April. Ama­teur radio oper­a­tors in Chi­na were wide­ly involved in the dis­as­ter relief actions. They were from Bei­jing, Sichuan, Shan­dong, Anhui, Qing­hai and Jiang­su, trav­el­ling to the dis­as­ter centre.
There in poor weath­er con­di­tions they helped in the trans­porta­tion of med­i­cines, tents, food and clothes to the dis­as­ter area. The ama­teur radio oper­a­tors were even direct­ly involved in dis­as­ter res­cue activ­i­ties. One Bei­jing ama­teur radio res­cue team saved 6 peo­ple. The high alti­tude caused 90% of the ama­teur radio res­cue team mem­bers to have Plateau Reac­tion (alti­tude sick­ness), but no one was injured dur­ing their efforts to help oth­ers affect­ed by the disaster.
— Fan Bin BA1RB, CRSA Coor­di­na­tor IARU Region 3 & Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee Chair­man Jim Lin­ton VK3PC.