More than 400 survivors who remain homeless after a mudslide killed 1,447 people in northwest China's Zhouqu County on Aug 8 are being moved into homes or school dormitories in the county seat ahead of winter.

Eighty-eight of 129 households of Shachuan Village had moved to low-rent houses in Zhouqu, Gansu Province, provided by the government, and the rest would move to dormitories by the end of October, said Yang Enmao, chief of the county's Civil Affairs Bureau.

The county government was organizing water and electricity supplies for the survivors who had been living in tents since the disaster, said Yang.

The survivors would receive one set of thermal underwear, cotton-padded clothes, and one coat per person, while the county government had stored some relief materials to help the needy through the winter, he said.

Daytime temperatures in Zhouqu are currently reaching 20 degrees Celsius, but they can plunge to minus 20 degrees Celsius in winter.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2010)