Quake survivors battling low temperature in Xinjiang

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Quake survivors battling low temperature in Xinjiang

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11 killed in Xinjiang quake

Earthquake survivors in Zhaosu County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are battling the bitter cold which drops to minus 25 degrees Celsius early Tuesday as they hoped relief materials would arrive soon.

"We sorely need fur coats, cotton shoes, caps and other winter clothes," said Zhang Yong, deputy division commander of the No. 4 agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

However, local officials said 1,000 tents sent by civil affairs departments could only make their way to the quake-hit mountainous region two days later as roads covered by deep ground snow have delayed the arrival of relief materials from Urumqi, the regional capital.

Zhang said 1,226 people, most of whom are ethnic Mongolians, were seriously affected during the quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale that which struck the county bordering Kazakstan.

Experts from the national and regional seismological bureaus arrived in the hard hit quake areas Tuesday morning and immediately began to evaluate the quake situation.

As relief materials are still underway, quake survivors found it hard to recover from the shock of the unexpected earthquake that had killed 10 people, a figure revised from the reporting of 11 because of miscalculation. Of those dead in the earthquake fourare children ranging from one to four years old.

"Cries were all over following two major bomb-like cracks," recalled 39-year-old Mongolian Dogujop, who was feeding his sheep at the sheepfold.

"I brought out two kids from my house and then ran to help my neighbor, who was buried in his house," Dogujop said. "We could only dig with our own hands since we had no tools at hand."

More than 30 aftershocks were recorded since the major earthquake rocked the county Monday but fortunately without new reports of casualties, local officials said.

To prevent further injuries amid continuous aftershocks, patrolling teams have been organized by local rescue workers to stop quake victims from entering their falling houses.

Soldiers and police officers were dismantling damaged houses toavoid the danger of them collapsing and hurting people. Some victims were sitting around fires to stay warm.

The earthquake rattled the region Monday morning, toppling 702 residential rooms and seriously damaging 487 residential rooms, with the direct economic losses estimated at more than 16 million yuan (1.9 million US dollars), according to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Some 500 homeless people were transferred to relief tents while some tried to ward off the cold wind in buses amid the frigid weather.

Zhang Yong, the senior corps officer, said the division's rescue command headquarters had mobilized 700 strong workers to dig caves underground to provide shelter for those homeless workers and cattle, but he said the work was slowed down by the low temperature.

The emergency food and clean water could "basically satisfy" people's needs, Zhang said.

However, quake victims are still worried about how to spend the half-year long winter season in Zhaosu County where the temperature could plummet to minus 40 degrees Celsius. They said the reconstruction of their damaged houses could begin only next spring.

"I'm feeling sad as we could hardly find a shelter in the freezing weather," said Dheligjo, a Mongolian who set up a makeshift tent in his backyard for his 80-year-old mother-in-law and kids of his neighbors.

Bayir, dean of a Mongolian school under the agricultural division of the corps, had more to worry about for his school.

"We have to think about where 140 students will continue their class since all houses were destroyed during the quake," he said.

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