An earth­quake that hit the Yun Nan province in the south­west Chi­na’s mountainous
region on Octo­ber 7, caused a death, injured 336 with 50,000

The 6.6 mag­ni­tude Richter scale earth­quake was respond­ed to main­ly by the
mil­i­tary res­cue force and some teams had radio amateurs.

Fan Bin BA1RB from the Chi­nese Radio Sports Asso­ci­a­tion said that some rescue
teams includ­ed radio ama­teurs, who coor­di­nat­ed efforts in the field with
their own VHF and UHF radios.

He said the imme­di­ate efforts were to res­cue vic­tims, deliv­er food, water
and shel­ter. Then crews fixed any of the dis­rup­tions to trans­port and other
facilities.

The shal­low ?quake, fol­lowed by eight after­shocks, saw many hous­es collapse
in the region close to Chi­na’s bor­ders with Myan­mar and Laos.

The City of Pu’er, about 85 kms from the epi­cen­tre, had peo­ple evacuating
build­ings for fear of after­shocks, which includ­ed a 4.6 mag­ni­tude event.

The IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee mem­ber, Fan Bin BA1RB,
said the local water and elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply were now nor­mal, with no disruption
to com­mu­ni­ca­tion includ­ing Internet.

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.