Reported on the Chinese Government’s Official Web Portal:
Freezing weather would hit parts of quake-stricken areas this winter, and residents there need more quilts, [executive vice provincial governor Wei Hong] said.
Sichuan has seen more rainy and cold days this winter than past years and the temperature was 0.5 to 1 degree Celsius lower than usual, according to meteorologists.
Statistics show the worst quake-stricken areas, mostly in high mountains, report an average temperature of 7 to minus 3 degrees in winter. The lowest was recorded in Songpan County, or minus 2.8degrees.
Residents living in quake-affected and remote mountainous areas need 3.6 million quilts and 3.6 million cotton-padded clothes, Wei said.
“Some elderly people and children are in need of basic equipment to keep them warm. Residents in some quake-stricken areas even face the tough issue of provisions for this winter and the coming spring,” he said.
So far, the province has received 3.274 million quilts, 3.658 million cotton clothes and 300,000 electric blankets and heaters, including donations from across the country and purchases by the provincial government, he said.
Some 6,489 families, mostly in the two worst-stricken counties of Beichuan and An’xian, are still living in tents because it was difficult to select sites for rebuilding houses, Wei said.
“Local authorities are busy making prefab homes to enable those residents to move in by the end of this month,” he said.
As of Nov. 12, the province had rebuilt houses for 195,000 rural families, or about 15.5 percent of the reconstruction plan, and another 685,000 homes are under reconstruction in the countryside, he added.
According to Chen Kefu, deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Civil Affairs Department, the province sill needs 330,000 quilts and more electric blankets and heaters.
“We aim to send those quilts, clothes and electric blankets and heaters to the hands of the affected people by the end of this month,” he told reporters in Beijing.
