China’s earthquake survivors endure frigid temperatures

Surrounded by destruction, survivors of an earthquake mourned the dead and endured a frigid cold in temporary shelters Wednesday, unsure how to rebuild their lives in the remote mountains of northwest China.

“Look at this,” said Han Zhongmin, retrieving some belongings with his wife from the ruins of their house, built six years ago in Yangwa village. “My house turned into this overnight.” Houses caved in and crumbled in a Monday night earthquake that killed at least 131 people and injured more than 900 others. Most of the casualties were in Gansu province and the rest in the neighbouring province of Qinghai.

Chinese scientists claim they received an ominous signal hours before Monday night’s 6.2 magnitude earthquake but were not sure where exactly it would strike, it emerged on Wednesday.

In the predawn darkness, Ma Lianqiang stood next to the body of his deceased wife wrapped in blankets in a tent-like temporary shelter lit by a single overhead light. His wife was hit and buried by debris in her mother’s house, where she had gone to stay because she was ill. Ma and other members of his extended family survived despite extensive damage to their house in Yangwa.