At 16:23:54 on November 28, 2013, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck Xieguaning Village, Shalong Town, Xiangyun County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture (100.6°E, 25.4°N), with a focal depth of 10 km. Shalong Town, Xiangcheng Town, and Yunnanyi Town in Xiangyun County were severely damaged, while other townships suffered varying degrees of damage.

According to preliminary statistics, as of 20:00 on November 28, 10 townships in Xiangyun County were affected to varying degrees. Among them, the three most severely affected townships involved 18,660 farming households and 115,053 affected people. The earthquake caused 1 serious injury and 7 minor injuries, collapsed 57 rooms in 34 households, damaged 10,700 rooms in 6,989 households, and damaged 3 schools covering 2,004 square meters. Ponds, water cellars, ditches, roadbeds, and road surfaces were damaged to varying degrees. The earthquake caused a total economic loss of 123 million yuan in Xiangyun County.

Xiangyun County actively carried out earthquake relief, investing more than 3 million yuan in emergency relief funds and mobilizing more than 800 relief workers. Relief supplies sent to the hardest-hit areas included 200 tents, 300 quilts, 300 coats, 2,500 kg of rice, 600 cases of bottled water, and 300 cases of instant noodles.

Currently, all 8 injured people are under observation and treatment in county and township hospitals, and their conditions are relatively stable. The disaster situation is being further verified, and earthquake relief work is proceeding in an orderly manner.

Feeding livestock when suddenly the ground heaved up and down

At around 8 p.m. that evening, a reporter from the Evening News arrived at Xieguaning Village in Shalong Town, Xiangyun, the hardest-hit area of the earthquake. At the village committee, they met Yang Jinzhen and Li Jiaju, sisters-in-law from Group 1 of Xieguaning Village, who had come to report the disaster situation.

Yang Jinzhen and Li Jiaju's families live in the same courtyard. When the earthquake struck, Yang Jinzhen was feeding the livestock, and suddenly the ground began to heave up and down. She quickly drove the livestock to the next door and ran toward the open ground outside, shouting, "Earthquake!"

She had just run out when the walls of the three main rooms of her house collapsed. Hearing the shouts, Li Jiaju, who was at home holding a winnowing basket and sorting chili peppers, threw down the peppers and ran out. After the earthquake, the two sisters-in-law did not dare to return home. At around 8:20 p.m. that evening, when the reporter followed them to their homes to check the damage, they had not yet eaten dinner.

Walking along the village road of Group 1 in Xieguaning Village, the reporter occasionally saw tiles from villagers' houses that had slid to the ground. The home of Xie Huazhong, not far from the homes of Yang Jinzhen and her sister-in-law, also had a wall of the main house collapse in the earthquake.

Xie Huazhong said that when the earthquake occurred, his family had just finished lunch. Suddenly they heard a "bang bang" sound, and he immediately went into the house and led his 80-year-old mother out. They had just walked about five or six meters from the door when the wall of the main house collapsed. Shocked by the quake, the family had still not eaten dinner by around 8 p.m.

Working in the fields, returned home to find cracked walls

In Group 1 of Xieguaning Village, the reporter met officers and soldiers of the Xiangyun Fire Brigade who were clearing dangers from damaged houses. At 6 p.m. that day, 34 firefighters had rushed to Xieguaning Village and divided into four groups to carry out hazard removal.

Villager Zhao Chuncai stopped the reporter on the village road and said that when the earthquake struck, she and her husband were working in the fields. When they returned home, they found cracks in the walls, and by around 8 p.m. they had not yet eaten lunch.

Villagers Wang Yuzhang and Yang Yuewen were statisticians arranged by the village committee. At 7:30 p.m. that evening, they began compiling disaster statistics. When they met the reporter, they had already surveyed 23 households. Police officers from the Shalong Police Station of the county public security bureau arrived at Xieguaning Village at 6 p.m. on the day of the earthquake to participate in hazard removal.

Villager Zhao Xinrong, who runs a small supermarket at the entrance of the village committee, said that when the earthquake occurred, tiles fell from the roof of the house in his backyard and the walls cracked. He was eating at the time when suddenly there was a loud "bang," and goods on the upper shelves all rolled down, but no losses were caused.

Led by Su Faneng, head of the agricultural science working group of Shalong Town, the reporter arrived at 9:20 p.m. at Xichong Natural Village of the Baishiyan Village Committee in Shalong Town, another village close to the epicenter.

Just at the entrance of the village, they met staff from the Dali Prefecture Red Cross Society and the Xiangyun County Red Cross Society who had come to inspect the disaster situation. After the earthquake, they had already inspected the disaster situations in several villages.

Villager Yang Debin's family had long worked at a stone factory in Qinghuadong, 13 kilometers away, carving stone tablets. After the earthquake, the family rushed home and found that the walls and roof of their brick-concrete small building, built in 2000, had cracked.

The main house of Li Peixiu's family in Xichong Village also became unsafe in the earthquake. They did not dare to stay there at night and planned to stay at her brother's home.

Eating when a mud brick fell and hit him on the head

At 9:50 p.m. that evening, the reporter went to the home of villager Yang Chaoju in Xichong Village and happened to meet Yang Chaoju, who had just returned from treatment at the county hospital.

When the earthquake struck, 53-year-old Yang Chaoju was sitting alone in the kitchen with an asbestos tile roof, eating. A mud brick from the upper gable fell, broke through the asbestos tiles, and hit Yang Chaoju on the head and shoulder, shattering into pieces.

A hole was knocked into the top of Yang Chaoju's head. He immediately covered his head with his hand and ran outside shouting. His brother, a doctor at the Baishiyan Village clinic, heard the news and came, carrying him on a motorcycle to the roadside, where an ambulance took him to the county hospital. After a CT scan, no bones in his head or shoulder were injured. After four stitches and some treatment at the hospital, Yang Chaoju hurried home to take care of his livestock. "Lucky, lucky, the asbestos tiles blocked it and saved my life," Yang Chaoju said.

A woman in Xichong Village who volunteered to guide the reporter said, "I'm 50 years old and have never experienced such a big earthquake." Peng Daxiong, director of the Baishiyan Village Committee, said that at around 9 p.m., relief supplies such as tents had arrived in the village. Because the village had few staff, all of whom had taken people to inspect the sites, there was no time to set up tents. The reporter saw at the village committee that 16 tents, 20 quilts, and 20 sets of cotton-padded clothes had been delivered to the village committee that evening but had not yet been distributed to the villagers.

As of 10 p.m. that evening, the earthquake had caused 1 serious injury and 7 minor injuries. The seriously injured person was Pan Chunlan from Group 2 of Zuosuo Village, Yunnanyi Town, who suffered a leg fracture when she fell while fleeing the earthquake.