The Macau Red Cross has donated 200,000 yuan (225,000 patacas) in response to a 6.2-magnitude earthquake which hit Gansu province at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, with a focal depth of 10 kilometres.
The death toll from the earthquake that struck Gansu province on Monday had risen to 131 yesterday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The temblor has caused damage to some of the tap water supply, electricity, transportation, communications and other kinds of infrastructure.
Tuesday’s statement by the Macau Red Cross noted that it donated 200,000 yuan to the Red Cross Society of Gansu Province on Tuesday morning in disaster relief for residents hit by the earthquake, while also sending a letter to express its empathy and solidarity with residents affected by the adverse winter weather in the disaster area.
According to the Central Meteorological Observatory in Beijing, the lowest temperature forecast yesterday was -10 to -14 degrees which was expected to last for the next 10 days in Gansu.
The Red Cross has been active in Macau since 1920, providing humanitarian assistance to the city’s underprivileged segment of civil society. It is an autonomous branch of the China Red Cross.
According to the statement, the Red Cross Society of Gansu Province has allocated 200 cotton tents, 2,000 quilts and 2,000 cotton coats to help resettle the victims, with the first batch of aid having arrived in the quake-hit areas on Tuesday morning. It added that a rescue team consisting of over 40 people from the Red Cross Society of Gansu have arrived in the disaster areas to carry out search and rescue work, while rescue teams from the Red Cross organisations in neighbouring Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces were on their way to the area yesterday.
The Red Cross Society of China and the Chinese Red Cross Foundation have respectively allocated 3 million yuan and 2 million yuan for emergency relief.
