With schools severely damaged by floods and devastating rains, the city of Huludao in northeast China’s Liaoning Province is making every effort to repair school facilities before the next semester.
Heavy rains began hitting the city on Monday, causing flash floods and disrupting traffic, telecommunications and power supplies in counties such as the coastal Suizhong county and the mountainous inland Jianchang county.
Several primary schools in Jianchang have been severely damaged by floods and relevant departments are making every effort to repair them before September 1, the scheduled start of the new semester.
The primary school in Yangshuwanzi Township, one of the worst-affected areas in the county, is located at the junction of two rivers and was severely damaged. Facilities such as the canteen, courtyard walls and water pump room were badly damaged.
The school has nearly 300 students, and many of them eat lunch at the school every day. The damaged cafeteria has become a big problem for the new semester because these students’ homes are too far from the school to return for lunch. Therefore, relevant departments in the county are helping the school provide meals, said school principal Jin Ridong.
“Relevant authorities in the county are actively working to ensure the supply of lunch to our school. The initial plan is to renovate the small canteen in the former kindergarten area of our school, which is relatively simple. We plan to prepare lunch there and then send it to the students here. We will do our best to ensure the speed, quality and safety of post-disaster reconstruction, because achieving this goal means that our school can meet the standards for resuming classes as soon as possible,” Jin said.
Heishanke Township Primary School is also one of the schools most affected by the floods; the mud on the school premises was up to 30 centimeters deep.
The school has drawn up plans to repair the damaged facilities and clean up the mud with the help of the district authorities. In the meantime, the school has also inspected water and electricity facilities and studied the impact of the disaster on each student’s family in order to prepare for the upcoming school year.
According to preliminary statistics from the Huludao Department of Education, 48 schools were damaged to varying degrees. The relevant authorities have launched investigations into hidden dangers and carried out immediate repairs where damage was minor. Emergency plans have been drawn up for the two most seriously damaged primary schools in Yangshuwanzi and Heishanke.
Suizhong County, another severely affected area in Huludao, has also conducted comprehensive surveys on damage to homes and farmland in seven major disaster-affected communities.
The Liaoning Provincial Natural Resources Bureau has assembled a team of 38 experts to conduct a geological risk survey after the disaster. The preliminary survey results showed that 87 geological disaster areas and over 30 newly formed small landslide areas are generally safe.
Rain-hit Huludao city hastily repairs damaged primary schools
Despite scorching heat, a group of visually impaired football players in the eastern Chinese city of Fuzhou have intensified their training in order to triumph at the upcoming 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
The Chinese blind football team for pairs consists of 10 players, including two goalkeepers from all over the country. They are all amateur players who have their own jobs and only play together in major competitions.
“We are now at the Fujian Provincial Sports Administration for Persons with Disabilities. We have been training here for over seven months. During this time, we have completed physical, technical, tactical and other training sessions,” said Liu Meng, a blind football player.
In the last week before leaving for Paris, the coach intensified the targeted technical and tactical training for them. In addition, their regular physical training program is not easy to complete even for non-disabled people.
“One of the exercises in this course is to strengthen the core muscles, as blind football involves physical confrontation. During our course, it was pouring rain outside and then everyone was sweating inside (as if) it had rained lightly on the field. Everyone worked extremely hard, but because of the goal in our hearts, we are all very happy and joyful,” Liu said.
During training sessions, players would usually wake up at 5:00 a.m. and head back to their homes at sunset after a hard day of training. They hoped to achieve good results at the Paris Paralympics to win glory for the country and inspire more people with disabilities to leave their homes and play sports.
The Chinese Paralympic delegation left for Paris on August 21 to participate in the 2024 Paralympic Games, which will be held from August 28 to September 8. The delegation consists of 516 members, including 284 athletes, and will compete in 302 events in 19 sports.
Chinese blind football players train hard for the Paralympics in Paris
