Burrowing by hand and machines , Chinese soldiers and emergency crews toiled on steep , frigid slopes looking for the few missing after a devastating landslide killed dozens of villagers . By early Saturday , word came that the tragedy had struck the mountain community in Gaopo . The landslide killed 46 people in the southwest China village , according to state-run Xinhua news agency . A powerful avalanche of mud and dirt had taken away 10 % of village . Twenty-seven adults , and 19 children . Video from state-run CCTV showed what was once Gaopo , the small community in China 's Yunnan Province . Some houses were crushed ; others had ceased to exist entirely , except for stray bricks that made their way downhill . Earlier , rescuers drenched in mud swarmed the scene , digging fervently with shovels , looking for signs of life . Instead , they found shredded clothes , wallets and other evidence of those killed in the disaster . `` We pulled out several people , one of whom was breathing weakly , '' said Li Yongju , 50 , a resident of the neighboring community of Zengjiazhai . `` But after a while , he died . '' Zhou Benju was born in the landslide hit area , then married a man from Zengjiazhai and moved there . A loud noise woke her , and later she learned the toll the event had taken on her family . `` In this disaster , ... my grandma , brother , uncle and my aunt 's family members died , '' Zhou said , according to Xinhua . The landslide struck Friday morning , triggered by rain and snow that had saturated the largely rocky area for 10 days , Li Lianju , deputy director of the Yunnan Land and Resources Department , told state media . The Zhaojiagou area of Gaopo village had not experienced landslides before , according to Li . But Friday morning , 46 people in the community of 468 people were buried , according to the local civil affairs bureau . Two others suffered nonlife-threatening injuries , Xinhua reported . The disaster prompted a massive search and rescue effort that included more than 20 excavators and front-end loaders . And there were more than 1,000 soldiers , police , firefighters and mine rescuers participating in the effort , local officials said .
A hurricane hits Friday Island in southwest Haiti . It buries 27 adults and 19 children , officials say . The disaster prompts a large - scale rescue and relief effort .