Over 150 dead, thousands injured in China quake; massive rescue underway(2)

The soldiers will search for survivors household by household and distribute materials to the affected villages, Zhou said.

Sadly, a military vehicle carrying 17 soldiers en route to the quake-hit area plummeted off a cliff around Saturday noon, killing one soldier and badly injured two.

"China's emergency response on disasters have made tremendous progress after the Wenchuan earthquake," said Wang Shaoyu, a public security planning and risk management expert with Harbin Institute of Technology.

"The mobilization of social forces and volunteers, the input of social resources and distribution of rescue materials have all made progress," he said.

INFRASTRUCTURE DISRUPTED

About 200 technicians from China Mobile Limited's Sichuan branch have been dispatched to disaster-hit areas to repair the telecommunications network.

Infrastructures remain intact in Sichuan but are badly damaged and broken in the epicenter and nearby.

The State Grid Corporation of China said the major lines in the province are operating smoothly, but those in the quake-hit area are severely damaged.

In Lushan county, two transformer substations have halted service, with one of them unable to resume operation. Five hydropower stations in Ya'an are disconnected.

According to the nation's major telecommunications companies, as many as 279 telecommunication base stations have collapsed due to the quake.

The earthquake has also damaged 34 reservoirs in Sichuan and affected the water supply for 303,000 people, according to the provincial water resources department.

Sichuan has rich oil and gas resources, with many pipelines and refineries. Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, said no damage had been reported at its production facilities in the quake-hit regions.

NOT AN AFTERSHOCK OF WENCHUAN QUAKE

The Ya'an quake has resulted in serious casualties and economic losses, but it is not expected to be as disastrous as the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan quake, said Pan Huaiwen, director of the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

Possibilities of aftershocks stronger than 7.0-magnitude are small, he said.

But Pan warned of aftershocks and secondary disasters, including landslides, mud-rock flows, and the collapse of caves and riverbanks.

A total of 627 aftershocks had been monitored as of 6 p.m., two of which were above 5.0-magnitude, according to the CENC.

Jiang Haikun, an official with the CENC's forecasting department, said the Ya'an quake resembles that of the Wenchuan disaster, as both earthquakes were formed in a similar way, occurring on the Longmen mountain fault zone.

Earthquakes on this 500-km belt are not frequent, but very powerful. Twelve quakes above 5.0-magnitude have occurred since 1900, including Wenchuan as the most powerful one, Jiang said.

The Ya'an quake was not an aftershock of the Wenchuan earthquake, he said.

A total of 12 earthquakes at 5.0-magnitude or above have occurred in the area within 100 kilometers of its epicenter since 1900, including the devastating Wenchuan quake in 2008.

CHINESE UNITED TO GIVE CARE

The quake has again gripped the Chinese who have yet fully recovered from the trauma caused by the devastating Wenchuan earthquake five years ago.

Information related to the quake and rescue work were quickly forwarded via the Internet and smart phones. Tens of millions of microblogs looking for missing people, updating rescue progress and mobilizing donations are forwarded without delays.

Internet users posted icons of candles, red hearts and prayers to show their concern and respect for the people of Sichuan.

"It's just 20 days before the 5th anniversary of the deadly earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan. I cannot forget that tragedy and feel so sorry about the increasing casualties from this quake. People in Sichuan, be strong, we are a family, we are together," writes a Weibo user named "MR-ZZ." Weibo is China's twitter-like microblogging service,

After arriving at the epicenter, Premier Li Keqiang asked to release the information on the disaster situation, quake-relief work as well as death toll and injuries in a timely manner and provide them accurately.

Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor with Renmin University of China, said government's timely updates reflected it has drawn painful lessons from past experiences that transparency is essential in any public incidents, let alone a massive earthquake.

The Shenzhen-based One Foundation started by action star Jet Li has raised millions of yuan hours after the earthquake. Billionaire and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao has arrived at the quake zone with digging machineries.

"Today we are all Ya'an people. United we stand," writes a Weibo user named "He Ma".