DESERTSurrounded by destruction, relatives of an earthquake victim mourned his death Wednesday in temporary shelters and under freezing temperatures in the mountains of northwest China.
Monday night’s earthquake collapsed houses and left at least 134 dead, as well as more than 900 injured, according to Chinese media. Most of the deaths were reported in Gansu province, with the rest in neighboring Qinghai province.
In the predawn darkness, Ma Lianqiang stood over his deceased wife’s body, wrapped in blankets in a temporary tent-like shelter dimly lit by a single overhead light. His wife was beaten and buried by debris at her mother’s house, where she was staying because she was sick.
Ma and other members of his family survived despite extensive damage to their home in Yangwa, a town in Gansu province. Her father pulled Ma’s son, who suffered back injuries, from the rubble. Her uncle said they heard the earthquake, and then the house started to collapse.
“We crawled outside scared,” said the uncle, Ma Chengming.
Nearly 15,000 houses collapsed and some 87,000 people were relocated in Gansu, a provincial official said at a news conference Wednesday. Many spent the night in tents spread throughout the area as the temperature fell well below zero degrees Celsius.
To the north, investigators in Qinghai were searching for 13 missing people in an area where landslides had hit homes, according to state media.
In Gansu, authorities said at a news conference that the search and rescue operation had essentially been completed by mid-afternoon Tuesday. The province’s death toll remained unchanged at 113, and the injured rose to 782. Together with Qinghai’s 198, that brought the total injured to almost a thousand.
Source: With information from AP
