All quake victims moves into transitional housing

The last group of 208 families who lost their homes and have lived in tents for two months since a magnitude-7.0 earthquake hit Lushan on April 20, have moved into transitional houses.

The Lushan earthquake in Ya'an, Sichuan province, left 196 people dead, 21 missing, 11,470 injured and affected more than 2 million people.

In Lushan county, epicenter of the quake, 40,000 families lost their homes, according to Fan Jiyue, Party chief of Lushan county.

The rural residents have all moved into transitional homes. Most of the urban residents also found accommodation by renting or buying, repairing only slightly damaged houses, or turning to relatives and friends, although some still lived in tents, Fan said.

"To move the victims out of the sweltering tents, we built 800 units of transitional houses in seven days," Fan said.

The temporary settlement area at the county gymnasium is one of the largest among the five temporary settlement areas in Lushan's urban area. All of the 208 families in the settlement area were given keys to their transitional homes by July 1.

Each of the families got a transitional house of 20 square meters, which are much bigger, cleaner and more comfortable than the tents.

Apart from the 208 units for living, there are 21 units used for public service. "We have all kinds of public services here, including police, fire-fighting, epidemic prevention, library, supermarkets, washrooms and kitchens," said Wu Jing, temporary Party chief of the temporary settlement area.

Ya'an city, where Lushan is located, has also completed its transitional settlement work. The city had settled 212,572 families, comprised of 712,378 people by the end of June.