Reuters
CHENGDU - Heavy rain over parts of mountainous southwest China on Wednesday is likely to interrupt relief efforts and threaten dams in the quake-stricken area where tents have been named the most-wanted item.
Thousands of aftershocks and a forecast of rain compounded the difficulties for military, government and private workers trying to deliver food and water and to ensure millions of homeless are housed.
Tents and awnings have been named as the most-wanted materials for more than 110,000 military and civilian rescuers. Officials said China needed up to 3 million tents to house an estimate 5 million people left homeless by the 7.9 magnitude quake.
"We're really short of tents. So we hope that other provinces that want to help us and other countries can donate them," vice provincial governor Li Chengyun told reporters on Tuesday.
The disaster-hit areas, mainly in Sichuan, had received 280,000 tents and factories were working around the clock to deliver another 700,000, Jiang said.
Many residents of Chengdu, the provincial capital hit by a persistent drizzle on Wednesday, spent the night in tents, fearful of building collapses.
China raised the number of dead or missing from the earthquake to more than 70,000 on Tuesday, as rescuers found more survivors eight days after the huge tremor hit.
Xinhua reported a 60-year-old woman was rescued in Pengzhou, more than 196 hours after the May 12 quake struck. It said she had survived on rainwater.
A government statement said the number killed now exceeded 40,000 and Xinhua news agency said a further 32,000 were missing.
Authorities had previously said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000. More than 247,000 were injured.
Premier Wen Jiabao urged the Water Resources Ministry to send experts to dams and reservoirs in quake-hit areas for 24-hour patrols with heavy rain forecast for the next 48 hours.
China has also ordered that all donations be made through the Red Cross Society of China in an apparent bid to avoid duplication and bogus charity appeals.
Mourning
Mourners placed white funeral flowers in the main square of Chengdu on Tuesday and burnt paper offerings. Traditional Chinese flower arrangements leaned against a flagpole in Tianfu Square, where the flag was at half-mast as part of three days of national mourning.
Hundreds of bouquets of yellow or white flowers were piled around the flagpole, and citizens had covered bushes on the square with white paper flowers, tied on with black gauze. White is the traditional color of mourning in China.
Thousands of people later gathered on the square after dark, chanting "Go Sichuan! Go China," provincial television reported. It ran footage of masses of people chanting and crying.
Emotions are particularly raw in Chengdu, which is only an hour's drive from the rubble, death and tent cities of the disaster zone.
Thousands gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to cheer on China and Sichuan just 80 days before the start of the Beijing Olympics in what was supposed to be a joyful and triumphant countdown to the Games.
The scene was similar to Monday, the first day of a three-day national period of mourning after a disaster which saw many schools, packed with children, collapse into rubble when other buildings in some cases were unaffected.
Anger was building among bereaved parents. In one town, in a rare public protest, hundreds demanded punishment for anyone guilty of shoddy construction.
Xinhua quoted China's top anti-graft official, He Guoqiang, as saying new schools in quake-stricken areas must be of high quality and more quake-resistant.