CHENGDU, China(AP)
China said it was struggling to find shelter for many of the 5
million people whose homes were destroyed in last week's
earthquake, while the confirmed death toll rose Tuesday to more
than 40,000.
Meanwhile, rescuers pulled a 31-year-old man to safety, the
second known case of someone being found alive a week after the May
12 earthquake. Ma Yuanjiang was saved from the debris of the
Yingxiu Bay Hydropower Plant after a 30-hour rescue effort, the
official Xinhua News Agency said.
Ma was able to speak and began to eat small amounts of food,
colleague Wu Geng told the agency. A miner was rescued after being
trapped for 170 hours Monday, Xinhua said.
The State Council, China's Cabinet, raised the overall
confirmed death toll to 40,075, most of those in Sichuan province.
Officials have said the final number killed by the quake is
expected to surpass 50,000.
The government was setting up temporary housing for quake
victims unable to find shelter with relatives, but there was a
"desperate need for tents" to accommodate them, said
Jiang Li, vice minister of civil affairs.
She told reporters in Beijing that nearly 280,000 tents had been
shipped to the area and 700,000 more ordered, with factories
working triple shifts to meet demand.
Another 480,000 quilts and 1.7 million jackets were also sent to
quake survivors, Jiang said.
Five million people lost their homes in the quake, she said.
"Despite generous donations, the disaster is so great that
victims still face a challenge in finding living
accommodations," Jiang said.
China has said it would accept foreign medical teams, as the
relief efforts shifted from searching for survivors to caring for
the homeless. A growing number of countries responded to the call,
dispatching doctors to the quake area Tuesday.
A Russian medical team with a mobile hospital arrived Tuesday in
the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu, Foreign Ministry spokesman
Qin Gang said. A 37-member medical team sent by the Taiwan Red
Cross organization also arrived in the disaster zone.
Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said a 23-member
medical team will leave Tuesday for China. Crews of doctors were
also en route from Germany and Italy, Qin said.
"China is willing to work closely" with outside
doctors, Qin told a news conference.
Other countries and groups have also offered to send medical
teams, but China has not given permission to allow all of them to
help.
"But given the situation, and difficulties in the area,
including transportation and telecommunications, it is not possible
for us to accept all of the rescue and medical teams to engage in
relief work," Qin said.
Rescue workers resumed the search for bodies on the second day
of a three-day national mourning period declared by the Chinese
government, an unprecedented gesture to honor the dead.
A crew of volunteers from Tangshan, the Chinese city that
suffered the country's worst quake in 1976 that killed at least
240,000 people, arrived in the quake area.
"Now it's time for us to help the others that are
suffering," said Song Zhixian, a farmer among a group of 15
older men wearing red hard hats and vests. "It is part of the
Chinese virtue and spirit: when one place suffers, then everyone
else helps."
Because of plans to bury bodies quickly, the government said DNA
samples will be taken from corpses to help with later
identification, Xinhua said. Identified bodies will be cremated,
although burial will be allowed where no cremation is possible.
Thirty-two radioactive sources were also buried under rubble,
Xinhua reported, citing Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou
Shengxian.
Only two have not been recovered, although authorities have
located them and restricted access to nearby areas, Zhou was cited
as saying. They were expected to be transported to safety soon. The
rest have been disposed of.
The Chinese government has previously said all nuclear
facilities affected by the earthquake were safe and under control,
but did not give any details.
During the three-day mourning period, flags were flying at
half-staff and entertainment events have been canceled. The Olympic
torch relay also has been suspended.
Thousands of quake survivors awoke Tuesday after spending a
night sleeping in cars and in the open, frightened by government
warnings of a potential strong aftershock. The alarm compounded
uneasiness in the region, which has been rumbled by dozens of
aftershocks since the May 12 quake.
Elsewhere, a panda from the Wolong Nature Preserve that
disappeared during the quake returned safely, but two of the
endangered animals were still missing, Xinhua reported. The others
were "very likely to be alive," forestry official Xiong
Beirong told the agency, because they were adults.
The quake killed five staff members at the reserve and destroyed
or damaged all of its 32 panda houses. The local government has
sent emergency supplies of bamboo, apples and veterinary medicine
for the pandas, along with food and tents for staff.
Oil and gas operations in the region devastated by last
week's earthquake in central China are virtually back to
normal, state-owned oil and gas giant CNPC said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, China's banking regulators ordered banks to
ensure adequate loans and other support for companies and
individuals in the area.
The State Council, China's cabinet, said donations for
disaster relief had reached $1.5 billion.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.