During the reconstruction after the catastrophic "8·8" flash flood and mudslide disaster, Zhouqu has focused on comprehensive geological disaster prevention and the construction of an early warning system. The newly completed disaster early warning system, covering the county, township and village levels and integrating geological and meteorological disaster warnings, has now entered trial operation and has played a role in the rainstorm and flash flood disasters that have occurred frequently in recent days.

On the morning of the 6th, the Lanzhou Meteorological Center issued a yellow rainstorm warning, and Zhouqu was within the warning area. Yang Xue'an, director of Shachuan Village in Chengguan Town and an early warning officer who was tending forests on the mountain, received a mobile phone warning text message from the Zhouqu County Drought Relief and Flood Control Headquarters, dialed a number, and the loudspeaker above the village immediately broadcast a standard female voice: "Fellow villagers, moderate to heavy rain is expected in Zhouqu from tonight to tomorrow. Please take precautions and evacuate in time."

From receiving the warning text message to issuing the warning notice to the villagers, the whole process took Yang Xue'an only a few seconds. At the same time, early warning officers in all villages of Zhouqu took action together with Yang Xue'an.

During the reconstruction after the "8·8" catastrophic flash flood and mudslide disaster in Zhouqu, disaster early warning became a key project of the reconstruction. In conjunction with comprehensive geological disaster prevention, Zhouqu County has built a geological disaster monitoring and early warning system that integrates geological and meteorological disaster warnings. The system has built 80 automatic rainfall monitoring stations and 96 simple rainfall monitoring stations, 104 sets of wireless warning broadcasts, and 3 automatic water level stations in more than 40 small watersheds across the county, and has comprehensively carried out work including emergency platforms, monitoring data transmission, monitoring center capacity, system development and construction, and monitoring and early warning model development.

Yan Jiequan, an engineer at the Zhouqu County Drought Relief and Flood Control Headquarters, said that these outdoor monitoring and early warning devices have achieved full coverage of all villages and townships in Zhouqu and are automatically connected to the systems of the land and resources, meteorological, and drought relief and flood control departments. Once rainfall exceeds the warning threshold, the system will automatically raise an alarm and send the information to the mobile phones of leading officials at the county, township and village levels and early warning officers. After receiving the information, early warning officers can remotely control the wireless broadcast system through on-site broadcasting, mobile phone text messages or calls to issue warning notices to villagers.

"From the occurrence of warning-level precipitation to villagers receiving the warning, the whole process takes within 5 to 10 minutes," Yan Jiequan said, adding that if a major warning occurs, this time will be shortened further.

According to reports, after this year's flood season began, Zhouqu has been hit by continuous heavy rainfall. On July 26 and 27, flash flood and mudslide disasters occurred in some townships of Zhouqu, causing severe damage to houses, roads, and farmland water conservancy facilities. Thanks to timely early warnings, residents of the affected townships evacuated in time, and no one was killed or injured in the disaster.

Yan Jiequan said that the geological disaster monitoring and early warning system built in Zhouqu County is currently among the most advanced in the country. Since the flood season began, it has sent hundreds of warning messages to residents, and all dangerous situations that could lead to disasters have been successfully handled by organizing residents to evacuate. After official operation, it will play an even greater role in disaster early warning.