Post-disaster focus now on relocation

Authorities in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, shifted focus to resettlement and recovery efforts on Tuesday after two rare 5.2 magnitude earthquakes struck the city within less than 24 hours, relocating more than 4,100 residents to temporary shelters.

Officials said search and rescue operations had largely concluded, with no residents unaccounted for after the earthquakes struck Liunan district at 12:21 am and 9:44 pm on Monday.

Local authorities had set up seven temporary shelters in Liunan district for affected residents as of Tuesday night.

Liuzhou Vice-Mayor Pan Zhandong said on Monday night authorities were focusing on treating the injured, monitoring aftershocks, inspecting potential safety risks and planning post-disaster reconstruction.

According to the communications administration of Guangxi, communication services in quake-hit areas had largely returned to normal after emergency repairs on Tuesday.

At a temporary shelter in the town of Luosifen, rows of blue tents, each equipped with three to four beds, housed relocated residents.

Bottled water, boxed meals, instant noodles and self-heating rice meals were distributed on site, while medical teams, power repair crews and psychological counseling staff were stationed at the shelters, according to Guangxi Television.

With school activities near the epicenter suspended, volunteer teachers organized games for children in the shelters.

Another shelter was set up inside a factory complex in Liunan district, where workshops were converted into temporary living spaces.

"We will make sure displaced residents are properly settled tonight (Monday night)," said Nong Zhixing, head of the shelter, in comments to local media.

Local businesses also joined relief efforts. Vendors in Luosifen provided free bowls of the region's signature luosifen rice noodles, with supplies reaching up to 2,000 servings a day.

"I have food and a place to stay, so I feel reassured," said Liao, a 71-year-old resident from Taiyangcun township who moved into a shelter on Monday evening. She said volunteers and younger villagers helped distribute water and boxed meals after the quake.

Pan said the latest casualty figures remained unchanged, with two deaths reported and one 91-year-old resident rescued after being trapped.

Seismologists are continuing to study the unusual twin earthquakes, whose epicenters were about a kilometer apart.

Han Yanyan, a researcher with the China Earthquake Networks Center, said the two earthquakes, which occurred about 21 hours apart, reflected a concentrated release of tectonic stress accumulated over a long period in the same fault zone. She said such closely timed earthquakes above magnitude 5 were relatively uncommon, though not unprecedented.

According to the Guangxi Earthquake Agency, the quakes were shallow-focus events at depths of around 8 kilometers, allowing seismic energy to reach the surface with limited dissipation and amplifying ground shaking.

The agency said Liuzhou's extensive karst geology also intensified the impact. More than 70 percent of the city's underground area is classified as highly developed karst terrain, where underground cavities can amplify seismic waves.

The earthquakes also triggered secondary geological hazards.

Geological experts from the Guangxi geological environment monitoring station said several circular sinkholes that appeared in roads and ponds in Taiyangcun township were earthquake-induced karst collapses caused by destabilized underground cavities.

Authorities said monitoring for aftershocks and geological risks would continue as recovery efforts proceed.

Zhang Li in Nanning contributed to this story.