China hit by 6.1 Quake - Displaces More Than 8,000
Pastor Dale Morgan
China hit by 6.1 Quake - Displaces More Than 8,000*
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 22, 2007; 11:10 AM
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities relocated 8,250 people after a strong
earthquake damaged and destroyed thousands of mud brick houses in the
far western Xinjiang region, state media said Sunday.
The magnitude-6.1 quake hit northern Xinjiang's mountainous Tekes county
at 6:06 p.m. on Friday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Xinhua
quoted an official, whose name was not given, as saying there were no
deaths reported.
But more than 2,120 homes were destroyed or made too dangerous to live
in, it said.
The region is mainly populated by members of the Kazakh ethnic minority,
many of whom are nomadic herders who live in tents during the herding
season and spend the rest of the year in houses.
By Sunday, some of the people living in houses that were affected by the
quake had been transported to relatives' homes or were resettled in
their own tents.
Xinjiang regularly suffers earthquakes, but injuries and damage are
usually limited in the sparsely populated area. A magnitude-6.8 quake
that struck the region in February 2003 killed 268 people.