Saturday's earthquake in southwest China's Yunnan
Province has injured 26 people, according to local government
sources yesterday, and destroyed houses as well as damaging
reservoirs, highways and telecommunications facilities.
As of 6 PM yesterday, over 12,000 people had been evacuated and
more than 600 rescued from dangerous locations.
The epicenter of the quake, 5.3 on the Richter scale, was
determined to be at the juncture of the towns of Matang, Binglie
and Hongdian in Wenshan County, part of Wenshan Zhuang-Miao
Autonomous Prefecture.
More than 1,000 army and civil defense personnel joined disaster
relief efforts, helping evacuation and rescue work as well as in
building over 300 shelters for displaced people.
The local government organized operations and sent a large
amount of tents and quilts to the disaster-afflicted areas, said
Zhang Jihua, director of the prefecture's civil affairs bureau.
In addition, the provincial government has appropriated 2
million yuan (US$240,000) in emergency aid for quake-hit areas,
according to Duan Liyuan, deputy director of the provincial civil
affairs department.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2005)