Quakes hit southwestern China near the border between Guizhou and Yunnan provinces
At least 80 people were killed in earthquakes that hit southwest China, state media said Saturday, as crippled infrastructure in the remote area complicated efforts to assess the scale of the disaster.
The Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman with the provincial civil affairs department as warning the toll could climb further because impassable roads and downed communications were making it difficult to collect information.
An earlier report from Friday's quakes had said 67 people were killed and 731 injured when the tremors struck on the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, toppling houses and sending panicked crowds onto the streets.
More than 200,000 villagers were evacuated after Friday’s quakes toppled thousands of homes and sent boulders cascading across roads in a region of small farms and mines near the border between Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, where some of China’s poorest people live.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted local officials as saying the death toll could climb further because the quakes seriously damaged roads and communications, making it difficult to collect information.
The damage also slowed rescue efforts.
More than 6,600 homes were destroyed and about 430,000 damaged in Friday's quakes, Xinhua said.
Some residents have taken the advice of aid workers to go to nearby shelters, but most had departed before the ambulances, army vehicles and Red Cross jeeps arrived on the scene.
“It is going to rain soon and things are going to get worse,” said one resident clutching two huge bags of possessions.
The weather is a major concern in Yiliang county. As the clouds gather above the mountain tops, the pace of the exodus appears to quicken.
Rain is expected and few are willing to stay and find out whether it will bring a second wave of destruction.
Many residents boarded coaches heading to the nearby city of Zhaotong while others left for nearby Yiliang City, which has become a safe haven for rootless, shell-shocked families.
The school grounds have been transformed into relocation centres, and so too have the civic squares of this typically run-down Yunnan community.
In one of dozens of tents erected outside the hospital of Yiliang City, a warm smile lights up the face of 40-year-old Qing Liu as he plays cards and eats instant noodles with his children.
Footage from China Central Television showed rescuers and sniffer dogs running past steep slopes because of the risk of fist-sized stones tumbling down. It also showed an ambulance stuck in stones and debris.
Almost all of the 110,000 people who live in Yiliang county's Jiaokui town, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the epicenter of one of the earthquakes, had evacuated, but many had no shelter and were waiting for supplies, a town official said by telephone.
"They are living in the open air now," said the official, who gave only his surname, Xiao. "We are in dire need of tents and quilts. We only received 2,200 tents. Many people have no quilts and are not living in tents."
A resident of Luozehe town, close to where the quakes struck, said he and others were evacuated to a more central area of the county. "It's quite hot here, there isn't enough drinking water or tents," said Wu Xuehong, who described seeing dead livestock after farm buildings collapsed.
Premier Wen Jiabao inspected stricken areas early Saturday and visited the injured, the news agency reported. Wen will direct rescue operations.
President Hu Jintao called for immediate relief efforts, according to China Central Television.
