Three days after the disastrous earthquake in Wenshan County, Sichuan Province, the Chengdu-based CAS Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE) announced the initiation of an action plan for facilitating the enforcement of the current quake relief program. The action plan includes the following items:

1. In response to the emergence plan decreed by the Ministry of Science &Technology, IMHE has decided to send 12 experts to participate in the MOST-hosted panels (specializing in the assessment of the quake's aftermath, technical support and frontline service respectively), in a bid to solve some key problems and issues in the drive by taking advantage of the academic buildup amassed by the institute's scientists.

2. According to the demands posed by the provincial government, the institute will organize its  anti-quake experts to take instant action to go to the quake-hit areas, offering various services, ranging from unclogging stemmed highroads and river routes, elimination of dangerous factors in the normal operation of hydropower facilities, safety assessment of the residential centers, to relocation of the rebuilding programs.

3. By rallying remote-sensing specialists, the institute is to join hands with its colleagues from other CAS units to carry out aerial surveys, provide firsthand data for national decision makers in the disaster reduction efforts.

4. The institute has summoned its researchers to obtain the aero-photographic information about the losses caused by the quake as soon as possible and submit it to the provincial government.

5. The institute has decided to publish the brochures and pamphlets compiled by its experts on disaster reduction and distributes them to the local governments and residents in the quake-inflicted areas as soon as possible so as to make the broad masses acquainted with the needed knowledge in their struggle against the disaster and reduce the possible outbreaks of the secondary disaster.