After the flood passes, the northeast disaster area leaves a large amount of debris and silt, and cleaning up this debris is a high-intensity manual labor. In today's rural areas, the proportion of elderly people is higher, and it is not easy for empty nesters to return home after a flood, let alone clean up the debris.
On the streets of Dabelchuan Town, everyone is busy, either cleaning mud or finding bulldozers to remove silt. In one corner, the Phoenix TV interview team saw an old man, sitting there alone and staring motionlessly at an open space across the road.
When I came forward to talk, I realized that it was her home, and she was 85 years old, and she used to live alone in this yard, full of corn, soybeans, and vegetables. The elderly often go to the city to take care of their sick daughter in her 60s. When the flood hit, she was in the city taking care of her daughter.
Elderly Kang Guifang:
I'll just watch here, the car is coming, let them give me a push, and it's not a matter if the door is closed and left open.
She said that she has two sons and four daughters, one son works in other places, and the other son, although he lives close, but lives with his mother-in-law, and he does not want to live together. There is actually nothing at home, everything is packed in a small bag on the body, and you carry it wherever you go.
While chatting, Grandma Kang said that she would take us to the house to have a look, but halfway through, it was all mud and could not go in.
Elderly Kang Guifang:
Yesterday I came back to see, I can't move, my heart beats fast, heart disease, dizziness, high blood pressure, my legs are also injured, (my legs hurt), and my pants are torn.
The village organized a bulldozer to shovel the thick silt, and Grandma Kang waited until 1 p.m., and finally waited for the bulldozer, but the bulldozer had too much work to do, so she could only push a way into the house first. Grandma Kang entered the house smoothly and did not enter the water. She herself tried to use a shovel to shovel the silt around the gate and close it, but she couldn't shovel it, and her neighbors persuaded her not to close it.
With the gate open and waiting for the bulldozer to return, Grandma Kang has to go back to the city to take care of her daughter.
Elderly Kang Guifang:
Their house was flooded, and this time they took care of me, my house did not get water.
Empty nesters like Kang Guifang are not an isolated case, and Zhao Lanying at the street entrance is also an empty nester, with children working in Beijing and Wuhan, and they are at home alone.
Affected elderly Zhao Lanying:
It was raining, I didn't expect to be able to send such a large amount of water, I slept until after 4 o'clock in the morning, got up and saw that there was water on the ground, and as soon as I opened the door, water came in through the door.
Looking at the mud all over the yard, she really couldn't shovel, and took two days to clear the bathroom road first. When I heard that the village had arranged for bulldozers to shovel the silt, they tried to remove the silt near the gate and open the gate. To push the gate open, you can only call young people on the side of the road for help.
Villager:
Now there are very few young people in the village, so it depends on these few young people, what to do if they catch up, and help clean up when they catch up.
When waiting for the bulldozer, Phoenix TV reporter Huo Weiwei also tried to shovel a few shovels, each shovel was heavy and difficult to lift, and it was almost impossible for a person to clear the silt of an entire yard. In the evening, Zhao Lanying finally waited for the bulldozer to remove most of the silt from the yard. The remaining silt, she was ready to scatter over the next few days to slowly clean up.
Affected elderly Zhao Lanying:
Oops, it made me cry several times. Oh, no way, I turned around the north side, and I saw that some homes were seriously affected, more serious than me.
Source: Phoenix Satellite TV Huo Weiwei, Wang Lei, Liu Jiahao Heilongjiang Dongning report
Editor: Mumu