The central government yesterday allocated 10.8 million yuan
(US$1.3 million) to thousands of quake-hit residents in north
China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The majority of the fund will go to earthquake victims in the
form of emergency disaster subsidies. The remaining 800,000 yuan
(US$96,400) will be used to control and prevent possible epidemics
from breaking out in the quake-hit areas, the Ministry of Finance
said.
The earthquake struck at 6:58 pm on Saturday in Bairin Left
Banner (equivalent to county) and Ar Horqin Banner in Chifeng,
claiming three lives. More than 1,000 local residents have been
reported injured so far, 54 of whom are in a critical
condition.
More than 7,900 homes have been demolished and another 83,000
were damaged by the quake.
Despite the death toll remaining unchanged by late last night,
about 600,000 residents have been heavily affected by the quake
that measured 5.9 on the Richter scale.
Worse still, rain fell in the region yesterday, making life even
tougher for the disaster-stricken residents.
Last night, the local meteorological station forecast that the
bad weather would continue.
Although no additional deaths were recorded directly from the
earthquake, a seismological administrative official from
neighboring Liaoning
Province died in a traffic accident while on the way to the
area.
Gao Rongsheng with the China Seismological Bureau said the
deceased was the director of the Liaoning Earthquake Monitoring
Network, Wu Xiaobing, who was 43. Wu was among a nine-person group
sent to observe aftershocks in the disaster-hit area.
Some residents in Beijing, Tianjin and northeast China's
Liaoning Province felt the earthquake as it struck.
(China Daily August 19, 2003)