MIANYANG, China (UCAN) — Four priests and two nuns crossed a checkpoint leading to a sealed-off area in devastated Beichuan county to deliver foodstuff to isolated quake survivors.
They came close to Beichuan town, which has been sealed off to be razed in an effort to prevent epidemics.
Father Zhong Cheng, parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mianyang city, led the Catholic team in three cars and a truck to deliver relief aid May 21-22 to survivors of the massive May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province.
The other team members were three priests from other parts of the country, and Sisters Zhang Yimei and Zhan Dengju, who serve in the parish. They loaded the truck with five tons of rice and 200 buckets of cooking oil before heading northwest from Mianyang.
They delivered the foodstuffs door-to-door and comforted the residents, including some Catholics, at more than 10 locations in Beichuan, An and other counties, Father Zhong told UCA News May 22.
“On May 21, after Yongan town, we drove north toward Leigu, a town in front of sealed-off Beichuan town,” he said. Beichuan town, 90 kilometers northeast of the quake’s epicenter in Wenchuan, is the first place to be sealed off.
“Police at a checkpoint (just before Leigu) refused us entry,” the priest recalled. “We showed them a Red Cross permit, held up a placard that said ‘Offering of Love from the Catholic Church’ and pleaded with them to let us pass,” he continued. The officers let them pass, he said, but “warned us to be extremely careful.”
In Leigu, Father Zhong reported, some rescue teams were spraying disinfectant, and most houses and buildings had collapsed or stood dangerously. The Catholic workers all wore face masks, he added.
After Leigu it was not possible to go further, so the Catholic workers turned south to deliver food to other devastated areas before returning to Mianyang on May 22 evening. Evacuated Beichuan survivors are being housed for now in sports centers in nearby cities.
In Father Zhong’s view, setting up checkpoints was a good precaution. “If ordinary people entered the area, they might feel depressed seeing all the devastation,” he explained. “It’s been 10 days since the deadly quake, and even if bodies are found, they would be decomposed.”
Earlier, on May 13, the day after the quake, Father Zhong drove Sister Zhan to her hometown to search for her elderly mother, who lived uphill. A rescuer had carried her mother, who could not walk properly, down the slope to a safe place.
According to a May 22 report in China’s Nanfang Daily, headlined “Beichuan, Farewell Forever,” rescue teams suspended all rescue work in Beichuan town by May 21 evening, after evacuating the area and detecting no further signs of life amid the rubble. The ruins will be blasted and the town rebuilt in a new place, the report says.
About 12,000 of the 30,000 people there died, and 3,000 are missing, China’s media reported on May 22. Beichuan town is 135 kilometers north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, which lies 1,530 kilometers southwest of Beijing.
Beichuan county had several hundred Catholics, who mostly lived outside the town proper, according to Father Zhong.
China’s State Council on May 23 announced that the earthquake has affected nine provinces and one municipality, and claimed the lives of 55,740 people, besides injuring 292,481. A total of 24,960 people were still missing and 11 million have been made homeless, it said.