Erthquake-hit Areas Need Tents Badly

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Erthquake-hit Areas Need Tents Badly

Villagers in earthquake-hit areas need tents badly and are anxious to rebuild their homes before the frost season sets in in north China's InnerMongolia Autonomous Region.

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Villagers in earthquake-hit areas need tents badly and are anxious to rebuild their homes before the frost season sets in in north China's InnerMongolia Autonomous Region.

In Xishanwan Village in Ar Horqin League (or prefecture), underthe administration of Chifeng city, 80 percent of the village's 172 houses were destroyed by Saturday's earthquake and the ensuingheavy rain on Sunday worsened the situation.

A total of 89 brand-new blue tents were lined up along the river that runs through the village.

"The frost season will come within two months and we have to rebuild the houses as soon as possible," said Huo Gui, head of thevillage.

A Xinhua reporter entered one tent where a family of five had just settled down and were eating around a pot of stewed potatoes and beans.

"Without enough dry firewood, we have to combine breakfast and lunch into one," said Liu Jun, one of the family members, at around 10:00 a.m. Their quilts felt wet though plastic sheets werelaid underneath to block the ground humidity.

Jiang Jun, another villager, was worrying about his 20 kg of cashmere trapped under the walls of his collapsed house.

"The cashmere can be sold for 6,000 yuan (about 720 US dollars),about one third of my family's annual income, and it will be spoiled if another rain comes," said Jiang.

In Tulonggang Village in Bairin Leaft League, 77-year-old Zhao Fengquan showed the Xinhua reporter his wrecked house. All the front faces of the four rooms collapsed and the bare earth lay exposed.

"It's lucky my husband and kids were working in the fields and I was cooking in the courtyard when the earth started trembling and the surroundings let out sounds of cracking," said Pu Wenrong,Zhao's 70-year-old wife, whose family were also living in a tent.

Villager Li Yuelong's house fell during the middle of the quake.The six-family members have just moved into a new tent dispatched to them after they had spent two nights in a one-meter shed they built themselves and covered with plastic sheets.

"We felt warm when we moved into the tent and thank at the bottom of our hearts all those who are lending us a helping hand,"Li said.

"We need tents badly," said Jiang Qingyun, Party branch secretary of Tulonggang Village, which has 585 house, of which 33 collapsed and the others are too dangerous to live in.

"Food and clothing are not the main problems, but we could not let villagers sleep in the makeshift sheds for too long. The areaswere hit by two rain showers after the earthquake and more weak villagers will easily get sick," Jiang said.

The earthquake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, occurred early Saturday evening in Inner Mongolia and has claimed three lives.

China has allocated a 10.8 million yuan (1.18 million US dollars) relief fund to Chifeng city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

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