Tents, food and water are now being trucked in to Tibetan villages hit by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake after rescuers opened a main road Tuesday.

Rescuers deliver food to local residents at Yangyi Village, the epicenter of the earthquake, in Gedar Township of Damxung County in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on Oct. 7, 2008. [Purbu Zhaxi/Xinhua]

In Gedar, a town with more than 4,000 people in Damxung County, nearly every house had cracked walls after the quake hit at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.

Damxung, the epicenter, is an outer county of Tibet's regional capital Lhasa.

Yangyi Village was hardest hit by the quake. Nine people died, 19 were injured and 171 homes toppled.

Another 20 residential houses were destroyed in neighboring Nyemo County but no casualties were reported.

A rescuer delivers food to local residents at Yangyi Village, the epicenter of the earthquake, in Gedar Township of Damxung County in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on Oct. 7, 2008. [Purbu Zhaxi/Xinhua]