The speed of life and death-a record of a frontier defense regiment in Xizang Military Region successfully avoiding the catastrophic mudslide disaster
Xinhuanet Lhasa, October 10 (People’s Daily reporter Guo Jia Xinhua News Agency reporter Fan Yongqiang, Wang Yitao) Two months ago, the largest mudslide disaster in the history of Lexiang, a border town in Cuona County, Tibet, broke out on a rainy night. A frontier defense regiment in do or die and Xizang Military Region made a scientific prediction and took effective precautions, and successfully avoided casualties and equipment losses with a high sense of responsibility.
After the loud noise, half of the hillside poured down, the Niangmu River was cut off by the middle, and the steel bridge disappeared instantly …
A tight like a Shan Yu for half a month, there is no sign of a stop.
At 19: 00 on August 9. Looking at the data reported by hydrological observation stations and warning points of various companies, Gu Yi, a young border defense battalion commander, frowned.
The weather is unusually dull. Niangmu River has soared by 2.5 meters from morning to dusk, with a large area of yellow river and rolling stones on the mountain. Since the afternoon, the engineer company near the Nianmu River has been barking at dogs, rats scurrying around and livestock turning around. The well water of a frontier defense company is muddy, ants are crawling under the eaves, and the fish in the pond are desperately jumping out …
A series of natural signs indicate that a catastrophic natural disaster is imminent.
At 19: 10, the telephone of Zhang Weiguo’s office, political commissar of the Frontier Defense Corps, suddenly rang.
"Political commissar, we have a premonition of a major disaster and ask for emergency evacuation from the engineering company and the officers and men of the Lewang Bridge checkpoint." On the phone, Gu Yi’s voice was extremely urgent.
Five minutes later, the Communist Youth League Party Committee made a decisive decision: immediately organize the officers and men to evacuate and report to the superior quickly!
The gloomy sky entered the night ahead of time. The officers and men of the engineering company organized the evacuation in a tense and orderly manner according to the emergency plan that has been rehearsed many times.
At 20: 10, two soldiers on duty and nine soldiers of a frontier defense company in the boardroom of the bridgehead checkpoint on the west side of Lewang Bridge were transferred to the battalion headquarters in the rain under the leadership of the battalion commander Gu Yi. At the same time, the border defense battalion sent 13 party member backbones to evacuate more than 100 local panicked people to a safe area.
The pace of evacuation of officers and men is accelerating, and the Niangmu River is also soaring. From time to time, there are big stones rolling down the mountain and crashing into the river.
At 2240 hours, the officers and men of the engineering company, four family members and all equipment were evacuated to a safe area. Three hours later, the largest mudslide disaster in the history of Lexiang, the resident of the border defense camp, occurred.
At 1: 30 on August 10th, Langcuo Lake in Taizong Mountain, with an altitude of 4,300 meters, burst its banks, and hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of flash floods and mudslides roared down the Niangmu River with a drop of more than 1,900 meters along a gully seven or eight meters north of the station of the Engineer Company, and half of the hillside was washed into the river.
The roar of mountain torrents, the crash of debris flow sweeping stones and the roaring thunder meet together, and the mountains shake in an instant. Gu Yi, who was rushing to the riverside sentry post to inspect in the rain, first reacted: Earthquake! In a blink of an eye, power and communication were all interrupted, and the canyon was dark.
At 2 o’clock, officers and men on both sides of the Niangmu River almost heard the loud sound of "rumbling" and the crash of steel from the middle of the river. Chen Xiao, a noncommissioned officer who withdrew from the bridgehead of Lewang, quickly shone on the river with a strong flashlight, and vaguely saw that the 62-meter-long Lewang Bridge and the wooden house at the bridgehead were swallowed by the raging flood and disappeared in a blink of an eye in the rolling waves.
Gu Yi broke out in a cold sweat. He and Guanggui Li, the instructor, stood in the rain and kept asking anxiously about the safety of the officers and men of the engineering company on the other side of the Nianmu River with a strong flashlight according to the reserved signal. Ten minutes later, when the flashlight on the other side drew a big full stop that meant "nothing happened", they were relieved.
Life and death speed of 7 hours, the officers and men finally ran in front of death!
The trapped officers and soldiers and their families drifted across the swift river, and the danger was completely left behind …
6 a. m. The rain still keeps falling.
The officers and men who didn’t sleep a wink all night got out of the tent and witnessed the disaster last night. Everyone was shocked: the barracks of the engineering company were almost swallowed up by the flood peak, and the mudslide passed by the camp; The 1.5 km riverbed of Niangmu River is raised by nearly 10 meters, and the width of the river surface is increased by more than 30 meters. The only road subgrade leading to the border defense camp was cut off by more than 800 meters; The 80-square-meter wooden houses across the Lewang steel frame bridge and the bridgehead checkpoint on the Nianmu River are gone; 28 greenhouses, 3 acres of vegetable fields and 2000 meters of drinking water pipes in the army were flooded by mountain torrents and mudslides …
For a time, traffic, electricity, communication and drinking water were interrupted, and hundreds of officers and men in the border defense camp and more than 100 people in the resident township were blocked by pieces.
Disaster is the command. Despite all the difficulties, the officers and men’s fighting spirit has not diminished and the order has not been chaotic. They shook off the muddy water and quickly put themselves into disaster relief and patrol duty.
On the second day after the disaster, all companies carried out border patrol tasks as planned, ensuring uninterrupted border control.
At 19: 00 on August 10, officers and men of the frontier defense battalion erected a simple optical cable connecting the other side of the Niangmu River, and sent 50 flashlights, 30 packs of candles and 5 large wooden barrels for water intake to officers and men of the engineering company.
At noon on August 13, the wired communication to the battalion headquarters and the border defense company was all restored after the emergency repair by the communication department of Shannan Military Division and the border defense regiment.
On August 18, a pedestrian passage was opened to the border defense camp over a mountain of more than 3,100 meters. The officers and men of the infantry battalion of the border defense regiment trudged 16 times on the dangerous mountain road and sent 7 tons of urgently needed materials to the trapped officers and men.
The danger has not been lifted. The frontier defense regiment decided decisively to cancel the plan of the engineer company to retreat to a frontier defense company along the steep mountain road, and instead set up a zip line to cross the river on the Niangmu River.
In the early morning of August 20, officers and men of the border defense battalion set up a river-crossing rope at a narrow place in the lower reaches of the Niangmu River. Bao Deyou, a scout-born deputy battalion commander, was the first to get into the hanging basket and cross the turbulent torrent. Five hours later, except for four left-behind officers and men, such as Kuang Kunsheng, the company commander of the engineering company, all the remaining trapped officers and men and their families were safely evacuated to the more powerful battalion by zip lines.
"At this time, the stone in my heart fell to the ground." Zhang Weiguo said that because the winter storage was completed ahead of schedule, the officers and men evacuated from the river could basically achieve no shortage of food, water and medical care.
Lexiang, a ethnic township where Menba people live in compact communities, is mainly based on forestry and trade. Ordinary people don’t grow grain or raise pigs, and they buy the food and daily necessities they need as they go. The sudden disaster destroyed the road to the county seat, and the people’s lives were seriously difficult.
Soon, water intake points for the masses were added next to the army’s tap water pipes, and grain and oil were delivered to the homes of people who lacked food and oil as planned.
Since the disaster, the officers and men of the frontier defense battalion have sent 2000 kilograms of rice, 500 kilograms of flour, 90 kilograms of vegetable oil, 20 boxes of canned food and some medicines to the resident people, which has ensured the ideological stability of the affected people and promoted the stability of the border society.
Scientific prevention, solid preparation, frequent disasters without casualties …
A frontier defense regiment is stationed in Cuona County, Tibet, with an average elevation of more than 4,000 meters. The mountains are covered with snow for many years, and the oxygen is only half that of the mainland. The whole protected area is located in the seismic active zone in Southeast Asia, and natural disasters such as floods, mudslides, avalanches and lightning strikes occur frequently.
The reporter saw from a document provided by the government of Cuona County that according to incomplete statistics, in the past 10 years, 11 people died in Cuona County due to natural disasters, and the economic loss was as high as 130 million yuan. In the same period, a frontier defense regiment was safe and accident-free, and no one was killed or injured in the army, creating a miracle of "life forbidden zone".
"It is not accidental that the Frontier Defense Corps can successfully avoid the catastrophic mudslide disaster this time, which condenses the hard work of several generations of border guards." Cen Jian, the head of the team who served in Cuona for 23 years, said.
This is an army that cares for the lives of officers and men and is really prepared.
In May this year, a continuous 18-day heavy rain aroused the vigilance of the leaders of the Frontier Defense Corps. In order to cope with sudden natural disasters, Cen Jian proposed to advance the winter storage work carried out in October to prevent accidents. Zhang Weiguo, the political commissar, agreed, so he delivered all the materials used by the first-line company for the winter before the end of May.
In July, the roads leading to two border defense companies were interrupted by landslides. This disaster also caused the road between the battalion and the outside world to be interrupted, but it still ensured that the frontline troops of the border defense did not lack food, and most of the living security materials of the border defense companies and duty stations could be maintained until June next year.
There is no disaster. Tashi Quzhen, secretary of the Party Committee of Lexiang Township, saw that although the border guards were affected by the disaster, they lived a carefree life, and the local people also benefited. They could not help feeling that this is a team that is really ready to win the battle. We can rest assured that they are here!
This is an army that acts according to scientific laws and has adequate emergency plans.
Before and after the catastrophic mudslide, all levels, regardless of the frontier defense regiment or the relevant company, have achieved a firm command, smooth orders, clear division of labor, and no one was killed or injured, and no equipment was damaged. Behind this, a little-known fact is that there are more than 120 pre-plans in 15 categories that have been formulated and regularly practiced by the Frontier Defense Corps in response to possible natural disasters such as avalanches and mudslides. Before and after the sudden disaster, all the work can be carried out on the basis of implementation in the emergency plan.
"The plan is in hand, and I don’t panic." Gu Yi said that since the beginning of this year, according to the flood situation, border defense companies have only conducted three emergency evacuation drills, and the most recent drill was two days before the disaster. Making plans scientifically and carefully organizing drills have played a vital role in successfully avoiding this disaster.
Editor: Cao Jin
