Wenchuan Banzigou, repeatedly ravaged by mudslides: Life is disrupted and keeps restarting G317 | Banzigou | Life

On June 27th, seven or eight excavators were clearing the river on both sides of the Banzigou Bridge in Mianyang Town, Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province. They were searching for missing villagers after a mudslide, while also protecting the Duwen Expressway Tunnel Bridge and the G317 Banzigou Bridge.

The water from Banzigou flows through the Duwen Expressway and the Banzigou Bridge on the G317 line to join the Minjiang River.

In the early morning of that day, Wenchuan County was affected by short-term heavy rainfall in uninhabited areas, resulting in sudden flash floods and mudslides at Banzigou in Mianzhong Town and Xinqiaogou in Weizhou Town. At 17:30 on the same day, the local authorities reported that the disaster had caused 3 people to lose contact and 4 people to die. A reporter from Pengpai News learned during an on-site interview that five of them went missing or died in Banzigou, Mianyang Town.

On the 27th, emergency personnel were restoring power facilities.

Banzigou is a place repeatedly looted by mudslides. Mudslides have repeatedly submerged houses and land, and villagers have cleared up rocks and planted cherry, plum, pear trees, and so on. They grow the famous Wenchuan cherries in the Minjiang River valley at an altitude of over 1000 meters. Many villagers purchase large trucks to participate in river dredging projects and transport sand and gravel. They tried everything possible to restart their lives on the land covered by mudslides.

Banzigou No. 4 dam, with its own efforts, blocked the impact of the first wave of debris flow and preserved the Douwen Expressway and Banzigou Bridge.

The mountain flood and debris flow drove to the edge of the courtyard dam

The water from Banzigou Canyon joins Minjiang River at Banqiaoshan Tunnel of Duwen Expressway and flows to Chengdu Plain through Dujiangyan Irrigation Project. Standing on the mountain ridge on one side of Banzigou, overlooking the direction of Chengdu, the Douwen Expressway "emerges" from the foot of the mountain, with the back and forth lanes branching, forming an "inverted V-shaped" shape, and then passes through the mountain through the tunnel at the foot of the mountain. On the other side, there is the Banzigou Bridge on the G317 line running parallel to the Minjiang River.

The round-trip lane of Douwen Expressway forks at Banzigou, forming an "inverted V-shaped" crossing the Banzigou River.

The residential area of the second village group in Banzigou Village is divided by the Douwen Expressway and G317 Line. About 200 households live in the cracks of the highway and usually pass through culverts under the expressway. From here, up the road on one side of Banzigou, there are two village groups. Local villagers claim that those two village groups have nearly a hundred households, and as they continue to climb deeper, the highest point is Xuelongbao Peak, which is more than 10 kilometers away. This is the uninhabited area where the short-term heavy rainfall occurred.

G317 Parallel Banzigou Bridge.

Wenchuan County belongs to the Longmenshan Fault Zone in the transition zone from the Chengdu Plain to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. In 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurred, and news of flash floods and mudslides occurred here for many years. According to public information, Wenchuan County is located on the eastern edge of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, northwest Sichuan Plateau, and southeast of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, with a total area of 4084 square kilometers and a county seat elevation of 1236 meters. The geographical structure mainly consists of high mountain and canyon areas, with county towns and villages mostly built in the valley areas. The majority of the mountain is composed of stones and soil, and this loose structure is prone to flash floods and mudslides after earthquakes and heavy rainfall.

The Banzigou where the mudslide occurred was formerly called Banzigou Village. A few years ago, after several villages merged, it was renamed Qianjin Village, but the villagers still habitually refer to it as Banzigou.

Excavators are urgently dredging the river to protect two important transportation routes.

According to villagers, the flash flood and mudslide came very suddenly. On the evening of June 26th, it started raining in Banzigou, which was not as heavy as usual. Before the incident, almost no one associated such a rain with the flash flood and mudslide. Villager Lao Ma said that he went to bed early that night. At 10:17 pm, the phone rang and he was awakened. The village chief called him to get up quickly on the other end of the phone and called for everyone to move. The flash flood was coming.

Originally, the leaders of the two upstream village groups called the village branch and told them that there was a flash flood inside, causing a loud noise. From the time when Lao Ma received the phone call, it can be seen that the village chief first notified the villagers living at the lowest point downstream, and then Lao Ma. Although Lao Ma's family is the first to come down from the upstream intersection, the terrain is higher.

The local government has gathered a large number of transport vehicles to transfer sand and gravel accumulated in the river channel.

Old Ma received the phone call, got up and called his wife to shout to his neighbors to move quickly. When everyone began to evacuate, Old Ma was worried about the large truck parked next to the road and the river. He rushed down regardless of everything and drove it up. He said that when he first went down, there wasn't much water in the river, and it didn't look like there was going to be a flash flood no matter what. But as soon as the car started, it could hear the roaring sound from upstream approaching.

My wife felt the whole ground tremble in the upper room, shouting at her husband, but there was no response for a long time. "Scared!" said the wife. The old horse rushed up in a truck, and as soon as he reached the courtyard dam, the mud and sand behind him followed and drove to the foot of the house. "I won't be able to come back in a minute or two later." Now the old horse still feels scared.

Villagers rescuing large trucks, engulfed by mudslides

The other four villagers in the same village are not as lucky as Old Ma.

Almost as Lao Ma drove the truck onto the courtyard, Wang Zhaoqun, the deputy director of Banzigou Village Committee, former accountant, and her husband Long Runke, as well as the villagers Ma Xianhe and Chen Mingshuang, drove a van several tens of meters below Lao Ma's house. As they passed through the passage below the highway, they were engulfed by a rolling mudslide.

According to a report from the Emergency Management Bureau of Wenchuan County at 10:00 on June 27th, in the early morning of that day, two sudden flash floods and mudslides occurred in Banzigou and Xinqiaogou in Mianzhong Town and Weizhou Town of Wenchuan County. After investigation, 7 people were found to have lost contact. And Wang Zhaoqun, Long Runke and his wife, Ma Xianhe and Chen Mingshuang and their four companions are all missing persons. At around 17:30 on the same day, the Wenchuan "6.27" emergency command center reported that the disaster had caused 3 people to lose contact and 4 people to die.

According to Pengpai News, among the confirmed four victims are Ma Xianjie and Chen Mingshuang. A relative of Chen Mingshuang said that on the afternoon of June 27th, the body of Ma Xianjie was found near the power plant at the intersection of Banzigou and Minjiang River. Chen Mingshuang's body was only discovered 20 kilometers downstream, near Yingxiu. However, Wang Zhaoqun and Long Runke, the couple, are still in a state of disconnection, and local relevant departments are searching for them.

A relative of Chen Mingshuang told Pengpai News that Ma Xian, like many young people nearby, has bought a large truck in recent years and earned money by pulling sand and stones a few kilometers upstream of Banzigou. On the evening of June 27th, the villagers received a warning in advance, and the village committee organized the villagers to evacuate to the resettlement site. Chen Mingshuang saw other drivers transferring trucks, and he also decided to drive them out.

For local rural families, such a truck is often the biggest asset and the family's hope for life. Ma Xian bought this truck on mortgage, and the loan has not been fully repaid yet. The husband of Wang Zhaoqun, the deputy director of the village committee, Long Runke, is also a truck driver, and their cars are all parked at the same gravel yard. Therefore, they drove a van with Chen Mingshuang and his wife to the parking lot.

On June 27th, forest firefighting and rescue personnel emerged from the search and rescue area.

A local villager introduced that there are still two village groups in Banzigou, which may have hundreds of households. Although many people go out to make a living, there are still dozens of households where people live. As a village committee cadre, Wang Zhaoqun wants to take a ride together to see the personnel placement of the two upstream village groups, and then accompany her husband to drive the car out. I didn't expect this flash flood and mudslide to come so quickly, and the four of them were in danger as soon as they left.

Blocking dams to catch debris flows

In recent years, Banzigou has encountered more than one flash flood and mudslide.

On August 20, 2019, Wenchuan County was hit by a major flash flood and mudslide disaster, resulting in 12 deaths and 26 people missing. The road from Wenchuan County to Chengdu and Lixian is interrupted. According to villagers, during the "8.20" flash flood and mudslide, 19 households in Banzigou were destroyed, but there were no casualties in the village. Due to the heavy rainfall, the water in the ditch gradually rises, so villagers have sufficient time to evacuate.

On August 23, 2020, Wenchuan encountered another mudslide, which overflowed the highway surface and caused the interruption of the Banzigou section of the Douwen Expressway. There were no casualties in Banzigou Village.

This year, flash floods and mudslides came quickly, leaving little time for villagers to evacuate and transfer property.

According to villagers, 19 households whose houses were destroyed by the 2019 mudslide have been resettled and rebuilt in the second village group of Banzigou Village. In order to protect the Douwen Expressway, the local government has built three debris flow prevention dams in Banzigou. Starting from more than 10 kilometers away, one dam is built every two to three kilometers, namely Dam 1, Dam 2, and Dam 3.

The last third dam is just in front of the second village group, only a few hundred meters away from the Douwen Expressway and the G217 Banzigou Bridge. The villagers heard that the mudslide had broken the second dam, and in an instant, they rushed out and collided with the third dam.

The No. 3 dam blocked the impact of mountain torrents and mudslides and shielded the highway and bridge.

The No. 3 dam withstood the huge impact of mountain floods and mudslides, protected the Duwen Expressway, the Banzigou Bridge on G317 line, and the houses in the gap between two highways. Unfortunately, it also happened here. Due to the debris flow filling the No. 3 Dam, the overflow instantly engulfed the channel leading to the upstream on one side of Banzi Gully. Ma Xian, his wife, and Wang Zhaoqun, who were driving a van through here and preparing to transfer the truck, died or disappeared here.

The debris flow filled the nearly 10 meter high retaining dam, and the overflow part buried the right side road.

The villagers said that they only know that the second dam has been breached, and the situation of the first dam is unclear. The personnel involved in the rescue confirmed the villagers' statement. If the No.1 Dam is also impacted, it means that this flash flood and debris flow may have started from the No.1 Dam more than 10 kilometers away, continuously accumulating energy and rushing downstream towards the Minjiang River. It was hard caught by the No.3 blocking dam in front of the Duwen Expressway.

A life altered by frequent flash floods and mudslides

After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, due to frequent debris flow disasters, the Minjiang River, G217 line, and Douwen Expressway were gradually diverted. The villagers from the surrounding high places have also been gradually resettled here - a relatively flat and safe location in this valley area.

Although the house has been relocated, the land cannot be moved away.

Lao Ma's family has a 4-acre orchard in Banzigou, which has repeatedly encountered mudslides in recent years. The first time was during the 8.20 mudslide, when a 4-acre orchard was deeply buried a few meters below. He invited an excavator to clean up all the large stones and replant cherries on them; The following year, another mudslide occurred and the orchard was destroyed again. He cleared it again and planted the cherry tree again.

At the entrance of the board ditch.

To Old Ma's surprise, this mudslide did not affect his orchard, as the previous two mudslides had already lifted the orchard. This year, the cherries on 4 acres of land have not yet fully grown, producing only one or two thousand pounds. The famous Wenchuan cherries can be sold for 25 yuan per kilogram from fruit farmers. This is an important source of income for local villagers.

Pengpai News has noticed that in addition to daily farming, many local people have bought large trucks in recent years to earn money by transporting sand and gravel. The mudslide destroyed their houses and villages, devoured their land, but also brought livelihoods to some people. The sand and stones transported by many villagers here are precisely the result of the continuous mudslides in recent years.

The mudslides repeatedly buried the plank house ditch, causing the river to repeatedly block. To ensure the safety of the downstream Douwen Expressway and G317 line, building debris flow prevention dams upstream can only be an emergency, and the fundamental solution to the problem can only be to clear the river channel and dig deep ditches. Therefore, after several mudslides, the local government built retaining dams while organizing excavators and transport vehicles to clean up the sand and gravel in the main river channel and transport them away. Local people also purchase trucks in large quantities and participate in this project.

Ma first bought a truck with a mortgage to transport sand and gravel, while his wife Chen Mingshuang took care of her children and elderly at home, while also being responsible for cultivating the limited land and managing the orchard. Now both of them have died, leaving behind two elderly people and two children around 10 years old, as well as unpaid car loans.

Wang Zhaoqun and his wife, who went missing together, are in their 40s and have two children attending university in Chengdu. They bought a truck to transport sand and gravel, considering that their two children are already old, hoping to provide them with more financial assistance. A truck worth three to four hundred thousand yuan can almost empty out the savings of many local families over the years. Therefore, once they hear about the arrival of flash floods and mudslides, their first thought is the safety of trucks.

On the afternoon of August 27th, Pengpai News saw in Banzigou Village that one or twenty drivers, organized by relevant local government departments, were crossing the emergency rescue area to transfer their trucks upstream of Banzigou. A car represents the future and hope of a family, and no one will easily give it up.