China's Number of Untimely Deaths Seems More Persistent than the Number
of Medals --Toll from weekend quake in China hits 38 / IHT

International Herald Tribune
Toll from weekend quake in China hits 38

The Associated Press
Monday, September 1, 2008

BEIJING: Rescuers appealed for temporary housing and tents Monday after
a weekend earthquake in southwest China killed at least 38 people,
injured hundreds and left tens of thousands of homes in ruins.

The temblor Saturday in Sichuan Province, which the U.S. Geological
Survey measured at magnitude 5.7, struck along the same fault line as a
May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000.

"This is a mountainous place, and so we can't build temporary houses
everywhere," Zhang Hai, head of the foreign liaison office of the
Communist Party propaganda department in the city of Panzhihua, said as
he issued a call for 10,000 tents. He said the beginning of the school
year, which was supposed to be Monday, was postponed for a week because
the authorities were inspecting damage in classrooms, he said.

"We still can't bring all kids back to their previous classrooms," Zhang
said.

Over the weekend, poor communication in the southern part of Sichuan had
made it difficult for the government and news agencies to determine the
scale of the damage or how many people had died. Earlier reports had
issued lower death tolls, though they said that at least 660 school
buildings had been destroyed and that tremors were felt as far away as
Chengdu, the provincial capital, and Kunming, the capital of Yunnan
Province, to the south.

China is still basking in the glory of hosting an extravagant and widely
viewed Olympic Games. But the earthquake underscores the country's need
to turn its attention back to pressing issues like high inflation,
pollution, and in places like Sichuan, disaster relief.

The quake killed five people in Panzhihua and the surrounding rural
areas, and the death toll also included 25 victims in Huili county,
local officials said.

"We are trying to maintain order and make sure that there's enough
supply. The disaster relief office has sent 17 medical teams made up of
over 200 people," said a man in the party's liaison office in Liangshan
prefecture, which includes Huili county, who identified himself by his
surname, Song.

Saturday's quake killed 38 people, the Xinhua news agency said on
Monday. The temblor destroyed 258,000 homes, damaged major bridges and
cracked three reservoirs, the agency reported.

Local officials told The Associated Press they did not have any
information on the reservoirs or whether the damage might place people
in danger.

Xinhua said 467 people were injured by the earthquake, which struck 20
miles southeast of Panzhihua in the southwestern corner of Sichuan. A
5.6-magnitude aftershock struck just one minute later, the USGS said.

About 152,000 people were evacuated in Sichuan Province and relief
efforts were under way, despite being hampered by heavy rains and the
region's rugged terrain, Xinhua said. It said 6,200 tents, 3,500 quilts
and 55,000 pounds of rice had been sent to the quake zone.

Since the 7.9-magnitude earthquake on May 12, the region has been hit by
scores of aftershocks.

A woman who answered the phone at the Sichuan provincial seismological
bureau said the region was hit by about 300 aftershocks on Sunday
morning. She declined to give her name, saying she was not authorized to
speak to the media.

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