Aftershocks, supply shortage hinder quake rescue

Dire need

Quake survivors in Lushan County are in urgent need of water, food and tents. Xinhua reporters witnessed that residents were waiting for relief goods along the roads linking remote mountain towns in Lushan. Children held up cardboard describing their distress. "500 people, no food, no water, no tents," read a paperboard.

"I had no food for a whole day," said a resident in the Wangjia Village of Longmen Township in Lushan.

Earthquake Strikes Ya'an, Sichuan

The villager was queuing for mineral water dished out by Chen Guangbiao, a high-profile Chinese philanthropist.

Chen said he distributed 1,000 quilts and 1,000 kg of bread while promising to raise 2.3 million yuan ($372,337) for the quake-stricken region.

But, many of the villagers still gathered at the road near the gate of the village, waiting for the arrival of the rescue teams, as all their food had been buried in the debris.

In the Zhongli township, 20 km north of the Ya'an city, local villagers have set up make-shift tents with any possible materials at hand.

In Baoxing, many local residents spent the night outdoors, in short of food, water and clothing, as there were not enough tents for every family and people were afraid of returning to their ramshackle homes to get supplies amid constant aftershocks.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday urged the country's railway and transportation departments to make every effort to facilitate the entry of tents, quilts and other materials into the quake-hit area.

With resumed traffic and eased traffic jams on more roads, relief supplies are reaching an increasing number of the needy survivors.

The survivors are also helping themselves. In one of the relocation sites in Lushan's Baosheng township, over 100 people are handing each other dishes, sharing the food they cooked with meat and vegetables they risked their lives to fetch from their damaged houses.

"My food is also theirs," one of them told Xinhua.

As of Sunday afternoon, water had been drained off from five reservoirs in Lushan, which suffered cracks and leakage and had posed a threat to people living in the lower reaches, to ensure the local residents' safety, according to a Lushan county government statement.

The quake-stricken area is expected to receive rainfall in the following three days, according to the Sichuan Provincial Meteorological Observatory.