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Death toll rises to 47 in NW China quake
China starts emergency-response to Gansu quake
6.6-magnitude quake hits NW China's Gansu
LANZHOU, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Ma Hong was helping his elderly mother get dressed when a powerful earthquake jolted his hometown in northwest China's Gansu Province early Monday morning.
"A quake is coming!" he shouted before running outside with his mother. His home vanished moments later.
Similar incidents reportedly occurred in several areas in the counties of Minxian and Zhangxian, where a 6.6-magnitude earthquake has claimed 89 lives thus far.
Minxian reported the bulk of the casualties, with 87 deaths, 5 missing and 628 injured. Two people were confirmed dead in the neighboring city of Longnan.
Located in the city of Dingxi, Minxian has a population of 440,000 and a history of poverty and drought. Most of its residents live in simple homes built out of wood and earth.
An initial investigation showed that the quake caused more than 5,785 houses to collapse and severely damaged other 73,000 homes.
Zhu Wenqing, a 40-year-old farmer from the village of Majiagou in Minxian's Meichuan Township, said his house survived the initial quake but eventually collapsed following seven or eight aftershocks.
In the village of Yongguang in Meichuan, the quake toppled wood and earthen structures and unleashed a landslide that buried 12 residents.
Two bodies have been found and one person has been pulled out alive from the landslide, but rescue efforts have been slow due to a lack of heavy digging machinery, rescuers said.
Chu Xiaoyi, a 20-year-old villager, said the landslide completely destroyed his house. His family of three narrowly escaped by holding on to a utility pole.
"We were sleeping when it happened, so we ran out almost naked. Now we have nothing left and even our clothes are borrowed from neighbors," Chu said.
Many residents in Yongguan said they are concerned about the lack of food, shelter, electricity and unstable mobile phone signals after the quake damaged the county's infrastructure.
Communication in many villages in Meichuan and in 13 townships in Zhangxian has been cut off. Power has been cut off in five towns in the eastern part of Minxian.
The epicenter of the quake was monitored at 34.5 degrees north latitude and 104.2 degrees east longitude, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
The earthquake happened in a fault zone that has seen 25 earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater throughout history, the China Earthquake Administration said.
The strongest quake recorded in the fault zone had a magnitude of 8.0 and occurred on July 21, 1654. That quake happened about 121 km from the site of the latest quake, the administration said.
Two helicopters and 6,000 rescuers, including armed police, firefighters, local militiamen and local government staff, have been sent to the quake-hit region.
Statistics from the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth at the Chinese Academy of Sciences suggested that the quake has affected over 900,000 people so far.
Solar halo observed in Beijing and Hebei, N China
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