The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on
Thursday that 47,000 people are now at risk owing to earthquake
damage to dams at 22 reservoirs in southwest China's Yunnan
Province.
Already 126,000 people have been left homeless in Ludian and
Zhaoyang counties by Tuesday's magnitude 5.6 earthquake. Nearly 600
were injured and four killed.
Local official said the area is in urgent need of relief funds,
materials and medicine. Some hospitals were damaged and even those
that are intact are overwhelmed with the injured, more than 200 of
whom are in serious condition.
Zhaotong Mayor Deng Xianpei said antibiotics and disinfectants
are scarce.
Deng said the city had to find shelter for 126,000 people after
the quake as 18,556 houses had collapsed.
More than 6,050 tents have already arrived, but the county is
still waiting for funds for to resettle the victims, said Deng.
The Red Cross office in Beijing reportedly delivered 8,000 tents
to the devastated area, saying that that was only enough for about
half of the people whose homes had been destroyed.
Estimates put the number of people who will have to rely on
relief food supplies over the next eight months at 130,000, for a
total of 15.6 million kilograms of grain.
Ludian, which is one of China's poorest counties, also needs
funds to aid the devastated area over the longer term. The quake
almost entirely wiped out the flue-cured tobacco industry, the
backbone of the region.
Deng predicted that the county might need 80 million yuan
(US$9.6 million) for its reconstruction, adding that the transport,
communications and reservoirs have been severely damaged in the
three recent quakes.
The county has a population of 370,000, and the average income
of local farmers was only 1,000 yuan (US$120) last year, an amount
equal to one month's average school fees in Beijing.
Earthquakes measuring 5.1 and 5.0 on the Richter scale hit the
county on November 15 and 26, 2003. Four people were killed and 120
injured in the two previous quakes.
Wu Xiaoqiong, a duty officer at Ludian's earthquake monitoring
station, said 146 aftershocks had been recorded since the quake,
including a tremor measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale early
Wednesday.
The aftershocks were declining in strength and it was not clear
whether they had caused any additional damage, Wu said.
The relatively low death toll might be the result of the timing
of the quake, which struck at 6:26 PM, before many families went to
bed.
President Hu Jintao and Vice Premier Hui Liangyu have personally
told the local government to do a good job in rescue and
relief.
A relief team headed by civil affairs Vice Minister Yang Yanyin
arrived at the stricken area on Wednesday afternoon. The ministry
has allocated 4,000 tents to the affected areas.
The ministries of finance and civil affairs have also earmarked
12 million yuan (US$1.4 million) in emergency relief to Ludian to
resettle residents, treat the injured and provide temporary
shelters.
(Xinhua News Agency contributed to this story.)
(China Daily, China.org.cn August 13, 2004)
