2023-12-25 05:18:02
BEIJING (AP) — The death toll from China’s most devastating earthquake in years rose to 149 on Monday, while two people remain missing following the quake hit the country’s northwest last week.
The 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook a remote mountainous area between Gansu and Qinghai provinces on December 18, reducing homes to rubble and triggering landslides that flooded two villages in Qinghai province.
State broadcaster CCTV said on Monday that one more person had died in the Qinghai city of Donghai, bringing the total to 32, while rescuers were still searching for two missing people. Gansú authorities had reported 117 deaths.
Nearly 1,000 people were injured and more than 14,000 homes were destroyed in the country’s deadliest earthquake in nine years.
Primary schools in Gansu’s Jishishan county resumed classes on Monday in tents, state media reported. Local officials indicated they would use the upcoming winter break to repair damaged schools and erect temporary structures so classes can return to normal for the spring semester.
Authorities also hastily erected housing units for survivors facing temperatures well below freezing. CGTN, the international affiliate of the state television station, said that the first 500 units were already delivered on Friday to residents of Meipo, a town in Gansu.
More than 87,000 people have been relocated due to the earthquake.
The earthquake caused economic losses estimated at tens of millions of dollars for the agricultural and fishing industries, according to state media.
The country’s deadliest quake in recent years was a magnitude 7.9 quake in 2008 that left nearly 90,000 dead and devastated towns and schools in Sichuan province, prompting a multi-year effort to rebuild the area with more resistant materials.
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