County struggles to recover (3)

It took officers from Sichuan Public Security Fire Brigade more than two hours to hike to Lingguan town from their base in Lushan, a distance of less than 10 km, on Saturday night.

Rescuers were forced to crawl over the section of the road affected by the landslides. Loose rocks rolled down the cliffs and across the roads so frequently that people had to run to get past. Some attempted to shield their heads with rolled-up clothing and bags. Some of the rocks blocking the roads are as big as dining tables or cars and will need to be blasted clear.

"We have a shortage of tents, but rain is forecast in the next few days. At present, most of the displaced are living in homemade shelters built from plastic sheeting," said Ma Jun, chief of Baoxing county.

Most of the rescue workers in Baoxing are firefighters and soldiers. By noon on Sunday, their number had reached 870, but more were expected later in the day. A second team was attempting to access the county via local waterways, said Xinhua News Agency.

Electricity, water and gas supplies have been cut off and almost all the houses are damaged, including those rebuilt after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, according to Xinhua.

"We distributed some food to the victims, but there's no more water and we only have enough food for two more days. The fear of aftershocks means people dare not return to their homes to collect the things they need. Many slept in the open on Saturday night," said Ma.

"By 1 pm on Sunday, more than 1,000 injured people had received treatment at Lingguan town hospital. The landslides mean we can't use motorized transport and have to carry the badly wounded on stretchers so they can get treatment further afield," said Li Ming, director of Baoxing Health Bureau.

Rescuers injured

An excavator toppled over the edge of a 300-meter cliff as it approached Baoxing on Sunday morning. Firefighters from a station in nearby Aba Tibetan autonomous prefecture rushed to the spot to help, according to the Ministry of Public Security. The driver of the excavator and his passengers are likely to be have been badly injured, but no details were available at press time.

Chengdu Military Area Command dispatched about 20 helicopters on Sunday morning to transport emergency supplies and medical staff to Baoxing, Longmen county and Taiping town.

Yang Liu, a 40-year-old volunteer rescue worker from the Bluesky rescue team, a branch of the Beijing Red Cross, said he had lost contact with his 10 fellow volunteers who arrived in the county on Sunday. The fallen rocks that blocked the roads forced him to abandon his attempts to hike into Baoxing on Saturday night.

Normality is returning slowly: The first outbound phone call from Baoxing was made at 11:06 am on Sunday. Communications, including landline phones and the Internet, were restored at Baoxing county center before noon, following 27 hours of repair work by China Telecom, according to Xinhua.　

That at least provided some cause for optimism for Zhou Xiaofeng, a Baoxing county official. He was in Ya'an when the earthquake struck. He was planning to walk home on Sunday morning, or, if possible, grab a ride on any available vehicle. He said more than 6,200 people, including members of his own family, live in his hometown, but he has not heard from them. "I called and called throughout the day, but no one answered the phone," he said.