Heroes alert residents as flood season sets in

At the onset of the flood season in June this year, Hou Fang decided to keep a whistle and a gong by her bedside every day.

"I can grab them immediately in case of an emergency and rush out to blow the whistle and beat the gong so everyone can hear it."

Hou works as a disaster management worker in Yonggang village, Yongchuan district, Southwest China's Chongqing city. Located in an area prone to geological hazards, nearly 150 residents of the village are under potential threat because of heavy rain and floods that caused the ground to sink.

In order to improve awareness of disaster prevention among the villagers, Hou conducted a drill last month. She informed the people that they must run outside to safety whenever they hear the whistle and gong.

"Most of the villagers are elderly people. It will take too much time to call them one by one if there's an emergency. Striking the gong may seem like an outdated method, but it works," Hou says.

Being a disaster management worker for more than three years, Hou has accumulated lots of knowledge about disaster prevention.

Hou recently stepped up inspections on a slope as the earth expanded after absorbing water, causing cracks on the slope.

"I squeezed small pebbles in those cracks. Every time I come here, I check the position of the pebbles to see if there are any changes. If they fall down, it indicates that the cracks are widening. And I need to report the situation promptly," she says.