Quake-Hit Colombians Hunker Down

Survivors of the quake look for their belongings inside
the debris of their collapsed houses in the earthquake-hit
area of Qingchuan county, Sichuan province,
May 26, 2008 &ndash Reuters photo.

After Saturday’s 5.6-magnitude quake which sparked landslides, hundreds of Colombians gathered in temporary shelters yesterday, reluctant to return home for fear of further shake-ups, Reuters reports. Colombia’s Red Cross reported 11 deaths and 54 injuries, with some 5,000 facing damaged homes and other buildings. President Alvaro Uribe visited the hard-hit area.

To put things in perspective, on Sunday China had a 6.0 magnitude aftershock.

A powerful aftershock destroyed 71,000 homes in central China, killing two people and straining recovery efforts from the country’s worst earthquake in three decades. According to CNN, 1,000 others were injured. Meanwhile, soldiers rushed with explosives to unblock a debris-clogged river threatening to flood homeless quake survivors.

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