Thunderstorms complicate recovery from Tianjin port blasts

Tianjin: Hundreds of residents displaced by huge explosions last week in the Chinese port of Tianjin demanded compensation on Monday, as authorities worked to complete a sweep of the blast site for risky chemicals.

The death toll from the two blasts rose to 114, officials said. Such products are to be stored no less than one kilometer from residential areas which, as video of the explosion tragically shows, was not the case in Tianjin.

Tianjin deputy mayor He Shushan said that those responsible would be held to account but didn’t touch on the issue of compensation for the damage to homes, health and livelihoods.

Yang Dongliang, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, is “currently undergoing investigation” for suspected violations of party discipline and the law, China’s anti-graft watchdog said in a statement on its website.

Nobody warned the fire crew about any hazardous chemicals, he was quoted as saying in a report dated on Thursday.

Outside the hotel, about a dozen homeowners protested holding yellow chrysanthemums – a mourning flower.

The discovery of ten more bodies at the blast site on Monday has raised the official death toll to 114, with 70 still missing. “It isn’t a small amount of money for us”, he said. “We feel very sorry”.

“Although chemicals are surrounded by soil barriers, they may seep through the soil if there is much water”, he said. “We won’t give up on this”.

He said the explosions called attention to deficiencies in China’s soft infrastructure, things like safety standards and emergency preparedness, which are usually overshadowed by China’s shiny skyscrapers and impressive roads.

While just over 100 have been confirmed dead thus far, the expectation is that hundreds more will be added to the tragic list.

“Transport insurers are looking at the damage to containers, warehouses and new cars but also to the port’s infrastructure of trains, cranes and rail tracks”, Dieter Berg, a marine expert at the world’s largest reinsurer, Munich Re, told Reuters.

The government has sought to limit criticism of the handling of the disaster.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday “urged authorities to learn from the “extremely profound” lessons paid for with blood” in the Tianjin explosions, state news agency Xinhua said.

Two massive blasts before midnight on August 12 wreaked havoc in areas a few kilometres away.The blasts have affected 17,000 households and 1,700 enterprises.

But Beijing-based netizen Xiang Li said the rumors are a direct result of a lack of transparency from the government. Zhang remained at home while her husband of three years left to fight the blaze on the Wednesday night, but died when the force of the explosion razed their apartment to the ground, according to local reports. “Not even one”, Wang said. “They don’t know anything”.

Another man demanded information from a government official. “It was terrible”, she said. The area is densely populated and was home to more than 5,600 households located within 3,280 feet of the blast site. “It was right at the heart of everything”, said Chet Scheltema, a regional manager at worldwide business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates, who has lived and worked in Tianjin. “We couldn’t contact him”.