Chen Xiao'e was home alone and fast asleep, she recalled, when the windows started to shatter for no apparent reason, like a scene out of a horror movie. "I was frightened out of my wits," Chen said.That scary night was only the beginning. Pretty soon cracks appeared in the walls, some several inches wide. Then the floor buckled. Ultimately, Chen and her family had to move out and seek shelter elsewhere. Their three-year-old brick home became too dangerous to live in.
The house joined a growing list of buildings in Da Antou that have slumped to one side and split apart over the last several years because of what is happening beneath them. The mountain atop which the village was built has been so honeycombed with underground coal mining that the crust of the earth is giving way.
"The earth below us is hollow because of the coal mining," said Li Xiaozhi, the village paramedic, who has been forced to move his family out of three houses since 2003 and now stays in the local clinic. "Almost every house has cracks now. The only difference is how big they are."
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