Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    A 19-YEAR-OLD woman cried as she talked about escaping from the landslide that crushed her dormitory moments after she got out. Long, who worked in a factory in the disaster area in Guangming New Area, is one of the survivors left traumatized by the landslide that have so far left 85 missing.

    “We saw a lot of people running downstairs, screaming. My younger sister and I also ran down the stairs as fast as we could,” said Long, who was napping beside her sister in their 3rd-floor room when the landslide took place.

    “The building collapsed only a few moments after we got out of it,” Long told the Shenzhen Daily at a gymnasium that is being used to shelter the survivors and family members of missing people.

    A special area provides counseling for the relatives and survivors. Psychologists from a Guangzhou-based emergency group arrived at the resettlement center yesterday morning to offer free counseling.

    A volunteer told a woman not to give up hope yesterday. The woman can’t contact her two daughters, her husband and her father-in-law.

    “We intervene in the cases where survivors and families of the missing are emotionally distraught. We put them at ease by listening to them,” said Peng Siqian, the director of the counseling team.

    Peng said that people suffering through catastrophes need companionship the most. “There is little we can really do for them at this moment but keep them company,” said Peng.

    The psychologist said family members who came to Shenzhen to search for their loved ones should stay with friends and relatives. The resettlement center houses those who don’t have anywhere else to go.

    “We understand the first two days are an extremely desperate stage for family members, so we will try our best to stay with them,” said Peng.