Aid rushed to Tibet after earthquake kills at least 10 and wrecks hundreds of homes
Written by changthai11 on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Aid rushed to Tibet after earthquake kills at least 10 and wrecks hundreds of homes
By AUDRA ANG, AP
BEIJING –– Rescuers rushed tents, food and water to villagers in Tibet on Tuesday after
an earthquake and scores of aftershocks rattled the capital and surrounding areas, killing at least 10 people and collapsing hundreds of houses.
State media said soldiers and rescue dogs were searching through rubble for people in Yangyi, the hardest-hit village in Dangxiong County, where the magnitude 6.6 quake struck late Monday afternoon.
The official Xinhua News Agency said nine people were killed in Yangyi. The 10th death was a high school student killed in a stampede in Shan’nan Prefecture, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Dangxiong, during a quake evacuation, Xinhua said.
Nineteen people were injured in Yangyi, many with bone fractures, Xinhua said. They were mostly women, children and the elderly because the men were away harvesting and foraging for winter, it said.
About 171 homes were destroyed. Photos on the central government’s Web site show piles of concrete - all that remained of collapsed houses - and the exposed roots of trees ripped from the ground.
“Almost all the buildings have collapsed in Yangyi,” said Yi Xi, an employee of the Geda Township government, which oversees the village. “I went there earlier and did not see a single one still standing.”
“Our efforts are focused on providing them food and shelter,” she said in a telephone interview.
Tenzin Chodrak, who escaped because he was putting extra hay into the sheepfold when the quake struck and his home collapsed, told Xinhua his nephew was killed and his mother was injured.
“I can’t believe it,” Nyima, a Tibetan herder who lost her 2-year-old daughter, was quoted as saying by Xinhua as she wept.
According to the news agency, at least 700 rescuers were working Tuesday, with soldiers putting up more tents hoping to accommodate all the villagers by dusk. Health workers were doing medical checkups and sanitizing the area to prevent epidemics, it said.
Dangxiong County is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the capital city of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) from Beijing.
Many families stayed in tents Monday night because they were afraid their homes would fall down. The regional seismological bureau registered 188 aftershocks by 7 a.m. Tuesday (2300 GMT Monday), Xinhua said, including one above magnitude 6.0.
Authorities said Lhasa airport and the Qinghai-Tibet railway - which stretches from western Qinghai province to Tibet - were still operating. Chinese media reports said none of Lhasa’s landmarks, such as the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple, appeared to be damaged.
But schools in the capital were closed Tuesday for safety reasons, Xinhua said. Shops and hotels in Dangxiong County reached by telephone said they were open and business was normal.
China’s far west is fairly earthquake-prone. On Sunday, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also suffered a 6.6-magnitude quake hours later. At least 60 people were killed when a village collapsed.
A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 devastated parts of Sichuan province, just east of Tibet, killing 70,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.
China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries but many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for most of that time. On March 14, monk-led protests against Chinese rule turned violent in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and ethnic Chinese residents were attacked.
