Disaster relief workers and army soldiers sweated and shouldered
the first batch of relief materials to the worst earthquake-hit
areas in southwest China's Yunnan Province on the back of relief
workers Tuesday afternoon.
The seriously hit areas, Tanhua Township and Shiyang Town, were
blocked from vehicles given the lousy road conditions in the rugged
mountains of Dayao County, Chuxiong Yi Ethnic Autonomous
Prefecture.
All the relief materials could only make their way to the quake
victims living in the remote mountainous areas by men and
horses.
Though the earthquake was measured at 6.2 on the Richter scale, but
the epicenter at Tanhua Town, at 26 degrees north latitude and101.2
degrees east longitude, was only 6 kilometers from the surface,
thus toppling a great number of houses in the county.
Local governments have raised and sent 100 tons of rice and
500tents to Tanhua Township and Shiyang Town, which were worst hit
by the tremor.
To
date, a total of 1.1 million yuan (132,530 US dollars) has been
allocated from local prefecture and county governments to help the
earthquake victims.
Meanwhile, army soldiers, armed police and militia reserves began
to arrive Tuesday morning to provide relief and rescue.
By
1:20 p.m. (Beijing Time) Tuesday, 15 people were confirmed dead
from the shock while more than 390 people were injured.
The earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale struck Dayao
County, 180 kilometers from the provincial capital of Kunming, at
11:16 p.m. Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2003)
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