chengpi@ecf.toronto.edu (CHENG) (10/20/89)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEWS UTC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EARTHQUAKE STRUCK CHINA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Subject: (AP) Earthquake hit rural area in Northern China NEWS 10/19/89 .................................................................... Series Of Quakes Kills 18 People, Destroys 8,000 Homes In China .................................................................... BEIJING - A series of major earthquakes shook a largely rural area of northern China before dawn Thursday. The temblors killed at least 18 people and flattened about 8,000 homes. Officials of the State Seismological Bureau said the quakes injured at least 28 people. They struck less than 24 hours after the devastating quake in northern California. The temblors - registering between 5.0 and 6.0 on the Richter scale - hit an area along the Shanxi-Hebei provincial border. At least one was felt in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the bureau as saying. The stricken area is a flat and dusty region about 135 miles west of the capital where farmers grow wheat and other grains and many live in one-story unfired clay-brick homes with dirt floors that easily collapse in major quakes. Shanxi is also China's major coal-producing province and the stark brown land is pocked with coal mines. The first quake, measuring 5.7, shook areas of Shanxi and Hebei provinces late Wednesday. It was felt in the capital, but there were no reports of damage and the bureau said there was no need to take safety measures in the city. There were at least four other quakes registering 5 or above in the next six hours, including one of 6.0 magnitude. Such tremors are capable of doing major damage in a populated area. Bureau officials said at least 300 small quakes were recorded, but there were no major aftershocks after dawn. The officials said there was still relatively little information about the extent of the damage. Xinhua said the casualty figures of 18 dead and 28 injured were ''preliminary.'' The stricken area is not open to foreign reporters and efforts to reach it by telephone were not successful.