The mercury has dipped abnormally low this winter in areas hit by the deadly May 12 earthquake.

Wu Jia, who lost her husband in the May 12 earthquake, holds her baby in her pre-fabricated house in Pingwu county, Sichuan Province. [China Daily]

Weather experts have forecast that temperatures in the quake-hit areas of Sichuan Province will be 0.5 C to 1 C lower than usual. The areas are likely to get more rain, snow and frost, too, provincial government officials have said.

The quake damaged houses of more than 3.5 million families in rural areas. Though many of these families have been moved to proper structures, about 530,000 of them will have to stay in prefabricated houses this winter.

People in Sichuan's quake-hit areas - the higher and cold mountainous regions inhabited by ethnic minorities - need 3.6 million quilts and an equal number of cotton-padded clothes and trousers to survive the winter, the provincial government said. Some people need grain, too.

The provincial government has vowed to provide proper food and clothes to all the survivors, and protect them from the cold and diseases, said Wei Hong, executive vice-governor of Sichuan.

To keep the promise, the province has built more than 3,000 resettlement sites in areas hardest hit by the quake. It has made about 660,000 prefabricated houses and offered financial help to 530,000 rural households to build temporary houses, Wei said.

And all the houses have been fitted with room-heating equipment.

By the end of last month, the province had provided people in the quake-hit areas with about 3.3 million quilts, 3.7 million cotton-padded clothes and trousers and more than 300,000 electric blankets and heating equipment.

Those articles were either donated by people from across the country or purchased by the provincial government, said Cheng Kefu, deputy chief of Sichuan's department of civil affairs.

To ensure adequate supply of food to about 7 million quake survivors needing immediate financial help, the province has created relief funds of more than 6 billion yuan and 280,000 tons of grain.

The provincial government will include the impoverished quake victims in the minimum subsistence guarantee scheme, too, Cheng said.

Sixty-nine counties in the quake-hit areas have a reserve of more than 1.4 million tons of grain. And the provincial government has inoculated about 1.8 million children, senior citizens and medics against flu, he said.

(China Daily December 22, 2008)