A man walks through the rubble near the village of Long Men Shan, a former tourist area heavily affected by the earthquake.
Habitat China's earthquake-response efforts continue
Photos by Mikel Flamm
Three minutes. The May 12 earthquake that ripped through Sichuan province in southwestern China reduced entire villages, towns and cities to piles of rubble in just three minutes.
According to government statistics, the 8.0 earthquake and aftershocks left 69,195 dead, 374,177 injured and 18,404 missing. The total devastation left 15 million displaced, with 5 million people in need of shelters.
After the quake, Habitat launched an initial US$5 million campaign for the first phase of a long-term, sustained reconstruction effort. A coordination office has opened in Chengdu, and plans are moving ahead for the first pilot rebuilding project in and around Xiaoyudong, a small and mountainous township of more than 14,000 people near the earthquake’s epicenter.
This summer, photographer Mikel Flamm visited the affected areas to document the devastation. “We are strong and we will come through this,” one villager told him. “It will take time to recover, but we feel there is hope.”
To view Habitat’s China PSA, visit www.habitat.org/videogallery/psa.aspx. To learn more about response efforts, visit www.habitat.org/ap.
