China officially opened its national website on disaster relief
on Wednesday after a six month trial run.
The website www.jianzai.gov.cn, sponsored by the State Disaster
Relief Commission, aims to release authoritative and timely
information on natural disasters and spread disaster relief
knowledge.
Natural calamities had caused the deaths of 2,373 people while
568 people remain missing. More than 13.2 million people sought
emergency shelter and direct economic losses totaled 199 billion
yuan (about US$ 25.51 billion) in China by the end of October this
year.
The central government has allocated 4.9 billion yuan to
subsidize victims of major natural disasters so far this year.
(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2006)