The Chinese government has made an immediate start on rescue work
for victims of Monday's earthquake in the
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China.
Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao has issued written instructions on the
disaster relief operations, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs has
dispatched a special team headed by vice minister Yang Yanyin to
acquire first-hand knowledge of the situation. Yang arrived in
Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang, Monday night and would leave for
the quake-hit area on Tuesday.
Red Cross Society (CRCS) of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
dispatched a rescue team to the earthquake-hit Jiashi and Bachu
counties Monday afternoon in the wake of the massive
earthquake.
The first financial donation in the amount of 250,000 yuan
(US$30,230) would be sent promptly to the affected area Tuesday
morning. Meanwhile, 2,000 cotton-padded quilts and 1,000
cotton-padded overcoats are ready for delivery, said Rahfu Abbas,
vice-chairman of local CRCS in the autonomous region.
The first shipments of relief goods, 1,200 tents and 1,000 cotton
quilts, would reach Jiashi and Bachu counties Tuesday. Meanwhile,
6,000 tents, sent from central China's Hubei Province, have already
arrived in Urumqi.
The rigid weather in Jiashi and Bachu counties is still freezing
cold, with their temperatures plunging below zero degrees Celsius
(32 Fahrenheit) at night, menacing those victims left without
shelters.
Despite the local government's prompt and strenuous efforts to
provide relief goods, quake victims are still badly in need of
shelters, warm cotton quilts and overcoats, said Wang Hong, a local
prefectural government official.
Jiashi-Bachu quake-hit area is in an acute shortage of huge
quantities of quake relief goods, he noted. Those relief goods in
particular need include tents, cotton-padded quilts and overcoats,
felt rugs, coal, food as well as medical apparatuses and
equipment.
The latest figures from the autonomous regional seismological
bureau show that the death toll in the quake has reached 259.
The powerful earthquake magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale jolted
the area at 10:03 a.m. Monday (Beijing Time).
In
a seven-year period following 1996, a total of 18 minor quakes
magnitude over five on the Richter scale have struck the area,
leaving a total of 47 people dead and another 255 others
wounded.
Jiashi County, one of the epicenters, in particular, has
experienced six major quakes magnitude over 6 in the past
decade.
(China.org.cn edited from Xinhua News Agency, February 25,
2003)