Wenchuan quake team disbanded

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-10-15  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA'S State Council, the country's Cabinet, yesterday declared the termination of its "General Headquarters for Earthquake Relief," five months after the May 12 quake that left more than 80,000 dead or missing and millions homeless in Sichuan Province and some neighboring areas.

At yesterday's final meeting, officials discussed a report summarizing the relief operation.

The report said the earthquake relief had come to a phase of rehabilitation, which was scheduled to take about three years.

This would bring the basic living conditions in the province back to or beyond pre-earthquake levels.

Major infrastructure and public facilities in the affected areas should be newly constructed or rebuilt as early as possible, the report said.

Meanwhile, quake-hit Wuqia County, a mountainous area in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was hit by an early winter.

Yesterday saw the area's first snowfall, which left more than 400 quake-stricken families out in the cold, local authorities said.

After several days of rain, the snow began to fall early yesterday morning, lowering the temperature to minus 3 to minus 4 degrees Celsius in the 7,800-square-kilometer quake zone, according to the county meteorological station.

"My house has cracks and I dare not live inside any more," said a herdsman surnamed Muzhali, who built a yurt in his courtyard in Ulugqat, one of four towns hit by the quake.

"We need a cotton tent," said a woman surnamed Tursun, 58, holding a three-month-old baby in her arms.

Her family and another 20 villagers crowded into a temporary yurt without enough room to light a fire.

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted the county on the evening of October 5. More than 700 houses suffered structural damage. Four collapsed but no casualties were reported.

The quake-hit zone has received donations of 700,000 yuan (US$102,500), 100 tents and 300 quilts.