Quake loss tops 845.1 billion yuan

2008-9-4

CHINA said today that the direct economic cost of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province has topped 845.1 billion yuan (US$123.5 billion) while death toll is feared to climb above 87,000.

The southwestern province, the center of the deadliest natural disaster in China in three decades, suffered the most, accounting for 91.3 percent of the total direct economic losses, Shi Peijun, director of the National Wenchuan Earthquake Expert Committee, told a press conference this morning in Beijing.
The neighboring province of Gansu accounted for 5.8 percent while Shaanxi Province took up 2.9 percent of the losses, Shi added.

More than 70 percent of the losses came from damaged houses, schools and hospitals and infrastructure such as roads and bridges, he said.

The devastating quake, which was centered in Sichuan's Wenchuan County, had killed nearly 70,000 people by mid-July and left 5 million homeless.

Another 18,000 are still missing, Shi said, adding that hope of survival for those missing is increasingly slim given that it has been three months since the disaster.

Combining the two figures together, more than 87,000 are feared dead, he said.

Since the May disaster, China has recorded more than 27,000 aftershocks Ma Zongjin, the chairman of the expert committee, told the conference. Eight were greater than 6.0 magnitude with 39 above 5.0 magnitude.

A magnitude 5.7 quake struck the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan on Saturday, killing at least 38 people. More than 500,000 homes were damaged and 191,000 people were evacuated.

The aftershocks may continue for some time. However, the chance of a tremor above a magnitude of 6.5 was "quite low," Ma noted.

He also admitted that poor quality construction materials used in school buildings were one of the possible reasons behind the deaths of the thousands of school children killed in the disaster.

"In recent years a lot of school buildings have been built in China and in this process of rapid development, some problems may exist," Ma said.

"The structure of the school buildings may not be reasonable enough and the related construction materials may not be strong enough."

A key problem was the lack of reinforcement, Ma said. Large classrooms were often supported by columns that could not withstand major earthquakes, he said.
The Ministry of Construction has sent more than 2,000 experts to quake-ravaged areas to investigate design flaws.

Accusations of shoddy school constructions have been in the spotlight with many questioning why some school buildings collapsed while nearby buildings were left standing after the quake.

Ma said the investigation would provide guidelines for the reconstruction of schools and hospitals.