6.0 Yunnan Earthquake (China)

[Memnon]

Al Jazeera

China quake destroys 18,000 homes

Chinese television showed scenes of emergency teams setting up shelters at the site
Rescue operations are under way in southwest China after an earthquake killed at least one person and destroyed 18,000 homes.
The magnitude 6 quake, centred in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, also damaged nearly 40,000 homes, the official Xinhua news agency said.
More than 300 people were injured - 30 of them seriously – in the Thursday evening quake and eight aftershocks that followed, according to Xinhua.

Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng, reporting from Beijing, said local television had been showing what appeared to be bodies under blankets, suggesting there may be more fatalities.
The area, being quite remote and fairly mountainous, would make it hard to reach and difficult to get information from, our correspondent said.
He added that most of the destroyed homes would have belonged to ethnic Tibetans who live in the region.
The authorities said they were sending 4,500 tents, 3,000 quilts and other relief materials to Yao'an along with hundreds of policemen.

Xinhua said medicine and food were also being distributed to people, many of whom had gathered outdoors for fear of more aftershocks.
The US Geological Survey said the a 5.7 magnitude quake struck at 7:19pm (11:19 GMT) on Thursday at a depth of 10km and was centred 98km east-northeast of the city of Dali.

Quake-prone area

Yunnan is a quake-prone, mountainous region that lies on China's southern border with Thailand and Myanmar.
It also borders Sichuan province, where a magnitude 7.9 earthquake a little more than a year ago left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.
About 375,000 people were injured in the May 12 quake, which left five million homeless and up to 1.5 million people displaced.
The deadliest quake to strike China in over 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, and destroyed hospitals, homes, buildings and factories in nearly 50,000 villages.
Thousands of children were buried alive when some 7,000 schools collapsed in the quake.
Southwest China sits on two tectonic plates - the Indian and Asian plates - whose constant collision created the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau.

Looks like China's interior is going to need more stimulus money. It would seem that there's a trend of earthquakes instead of a one-off disaster - I hope my relatives are far enough to be safe :S