Re: CHINA - 7.9 earthquake near Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Re: CHINA - 7.9 earthquake near Chengdu, Sichuan Province
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao returned to Sichuan province as rescuers, hampered by rain, struggled to shelter more than 12 million people displaced by last week's earthquake before disease spreads.
China needs 3.3 million tents to shelter the survivors, the Foreign Ministry said. The death toll rose today to 51,151 people with 29,328 missing. About 400,000 tents have been sent to Sichuan, the worst-affected region, since the May 12 disaster, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news briefing in Beijing. Wen, who was in the quake zone last week, is returning to direct rebuilding work, state radio reported.
``Tents are badly needed now,'' Weilin Kuang, China's deputy consul-general in New York, said during a press conference in Manhattan today.
The deadliest earthquake in China in 32 years destroyed 5.4 million homes and damaged another 21.4 million. At least 45,000 other buildings, such as factories and schools, were ``flattened,'' with private and state-owned businesses incurring about $9.5 billion in damage, Kuang said.
China is facing an ``arduous'' task in restoring social order and production in the disaster zone, Wen said yesterday after a meeting of the State Council, or cabinet.
Disease Prevention
``Shelter is pressing, but with large numbers of homeless people in relatively confined spaces, we need to pay attention to prevention of disease,'' said Francis Markus, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in a phone interview from Mianyang in Sichuan.
More than 150,000 tents have been provided by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the U.K., the U.S. and the United Nations Refugee Agency, state-run Xinhua News Agency cited the State Council as saying.
Vice Premier Li Keqiang, who is directing relief operations in Sichuan province, called on rescuers to step up their work after a 35-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble yesterday, nine days after the quake.
``As long as there is only 1 percent hope of finding survivors, we must spare no efforts at trying 100 percent,'' Kuang said.
Hygiene and Sanitation
Li also urged medical workers to intensify efforts on hygiene and sanitation after cases of gangrene were found among the 288,431 people who were injured. There are fears of epidemics in some areas as the weather gets warmer, Kuang said.
The government is setting up a 70 billion yuan ($10 billion) fund to pay for reconstruction work, and government departments have been told to cut spending by 5 percent to divert funds for rebuilding. Disaster-relief allocations reached 13.96 billion yuan today.
The quake zone covers about 100,000 square kilometers (36,000 square miles) or about 1.5 times the area of Ireland.
``We're also looking ahead to reconstruction needs,'' Markus said. The Red Cross ``is calling for funds to help reconstruction, help people rebuild their homes so that they can regain their resilience and stand on their own feet as quickly as possible.''
Rains that have hampered recovery work and caused landslides in the mountainous areas of Sichuan closest to the epicenter may ease tomorrow, according to the latest forecast of the China Meteorological Administration.
Blocked Rivers
Landslides have blocked rivers and created 34 so-called quake lakes, Liu Yuan, an official in the Ministry of Land and Resources, said today at a news briefing. Water levels are still rising and workers are digging channels to try to drain them.
``Given that there are still aftershocks occurring and that June is the rainy season, landslides and mudflows are likely and flooding of barriers is likely,'' Yun Xiaosu, vice minister of land and resources, said at a news conference in Beijing today.
Rescue and relief efforts are progressing, Kuang said in New York. Some students have returned to class in areas affected by the temblor, and some of the 29,000 kilometers of roads (18,000 miles) that were damaged have been repaired and reopened, he said.
However, efforts to keep roads open, get medicine and other needed supplies to affected areas and transport injured people out are proving difficult due to damage from aftershocks, Kuang said.
There have been 167 aftershocks with magnitudes of 4 or higher since the quake, Kuang said. A 4.5 magnitude aftershock hit the area today at 3:18 p.m. local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
`Daunting Challenges'
``We are still faced with many daunting challenges,'' Kuang said.
Wen earlier ordered 24-hour patrols on dams in the area. Dams on the Min River, also near the epicenter, are ``temporarily stable,'' assuming there are no strong aftershocks or heavy rains, Gu Junyuan, the chief engineer of the China Electricity Regulatory Commission, said three days ago.
The commission imposed higher earthquake safety standards for new hydropower projects after the temblor, it said in a statement on its Web site today.
One of the hydroelectric dams yielded another survivor buried under the rubble. Zeng Changhui was found in a tunnel in the Jinhe Hydropower Plant near Hongbai in Sichuan yesterday, Xinhua said.
Beijing Olympic Games organizers restarted the torch relay today after postponing it for a three-day mourning period for those who died in the disaster. They also changed the dates for when the torch passes through Sichuan, moving it closer to the beginning of the Games, which start Aug. 8.
The earthquake was the most powerful to hit China, the world's most populous country with 1.3 billion people, since a magnitude-8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526 people. A 7.5-magnitude temblor in Tangshan in the northeast killed 250,000 in 1976, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
China's seismology department said last week's quake had a magnitude of 8.
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