China earthquake death toll reaches 94
1,000 people injured; 2,000 homes completely destroyed
The Associated Press
Posted: Jul 23, 2013 6:27 AM ET
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2013 6:23 AM ET
One person is still missing after Monday's quake
near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province, a rural area in northwest
China. About 1,000 were injured and 31,600 have been moved to temporary
shelters. (Guo Gang/Xinhua/Associated Press)
Rescuers with shovels and sniffer dogs chipped away at collapsed
hillsides Tuesday as the death toll rose to 94 from a strong earthquake
in a farming region of northwest China.
Just one person was listed as missing and 1,001 as injured in Monday morning's quake near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province.
About 123,000 people were affected by the quake, with 31,600 moved to
temporary shelters, the provincial earthquake administration said on
its website. Almost 2,000 homes were completely destroyed, and about
22,500 damaged, the administration said.
The quake toppled brick walls and telephone lines, shattered
mud-and-tile-roofed houses and sent cascades of dirt and rock down
hillsides, blocking roads and slowing rescue efforts by crews trying to
reach remote areas.
Hospitals
set up aid stations in parking lots to accommodate the injured, while
hundreds of paramilitary People's Armed Police fanned out to search for
victims in the region of terraced farmland where the quake struck about
1,200 kilometres west of Beijing.
Min county in Dingxi's rural south accounted for almost all the deaths and the worst damage.
Urban areas where buildings are more solid were spared major damage,
unlike the traditional mud and brick homes in the countryside.
Tremors were felt in the provincial capital of Lanzhou 177 kilometres
north, and as far away as Xi'an, 400 kilometres to the east.
Heavy rain expected later this week
The
government's earthquake monitoring centre said the quake had a
magnitude of 6.6, while the U.S. Geological Survey said it was 5.9.
Measurements can often vary, especially if different monitoring
equipment is used.
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The Chinese Red Cross said it was shipping 200 tents, 1,000 sets of
household items, and 2,000 jackets to the area. Other supplies were
being shipped in by the army and paramilitary police, which dispatched
around 6,000 personnel and two helicopters to aid in rescue efforts.
But heavy rain is expected later in the week, raising the need for shelter and increasing the chance of further landslides.
Gansu, with a population of 26 million, is one of China's more
lightly populated provinces, although the New Jersey-sized area of
Dingxi has a greater concentration of farms in rolling hills terraced
for crops and fruit trees. Dingxi has a population of about 2.7 million
China's worst earthquake in recent years was a 7.9-magnitude temblor
that struck the southwestern province of Sichuan in 2008, leaving 90,000
people dead or missing.
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