Strong earthquake in northwest China that killed at least 148 causes economic losses worth millions

The severe earthquake that struck northwest China this week, killing at least 148 people, inflicted economic losses in the agriculture and fishing industries worth tens of millions of dollars, according to official media on Saturday.

Gansu officials conducted early assessments, which revealed that the province’s agricultural and fishery businesses had lost 532 million yuan (about $74.6 million), according to state broadcaster CCTV.

According to the story, authorities were deciding how to effectively use the relief fund, which had been established up just days earlier, to allow the agricultural industry to restore production as quickly as possible.

The magnitude 6.2 quake struck in a mountainous region Monday night between Gansu and Qinghai provinces and about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) southwest of Beijing, the Chinese capital. CCTV said 117 people were killed in Gansu and 31 others died in neighboring Qinghai, while three people remained missing. Nearly 1,000 were injured and more than 14,000 homes were destroyed.

During a visit Saturday to several villages in Gansu and a county in Qinghai, Chinese Premier Li Qiang urged authorities to improve living conditions for the survivors of the quake by every available method, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Li said the top priority of relief efforts was to make sure people stay warm and safe in winter, the report added.

CGTN, the Chinese state broadcaster’s international arm, said the first batch of 500 temporary housing units had been built for residents in Meipo, a village in Gansu, on Friday night.

Many had spent the night in shelters set up in the area as temperatures plunged well below freezing. Funerals were held, some following the Muslim traditions of much of the population in the affected area.

Most of China’s earthquakes strike in the western part of the country, including Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, as well as the Xinjiang region and Tibet. The latest quake was the deadliest one in the country in nine years.