5 million homeless need shelter in China

CHENGDU, China — Eight days after a massive earthquake struck southwestern China, the government began to grapple Tuesday with what may be its biggest quandary: what to do with what it said are the 5 million people left homeless by the disaster.

As the confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000 on Tuesday, Chinese authorities issued an urgent appeal for tents.

So far, the government and military have shipped 280,000 tents to the disaster zone and contracted for another 700,000 to be delivered as fast as they can be produced and packed. In the meantime, the government has dispatched 800,000 nylon tarps to be used as makeshift tents.

"Once the homeless people are in stable conditions, then we will work out a plan for reconstruction," Jiang Li, deputy civil affairs minister, said in Beijing on Tuesday, noting that 21 million houses had been damaged and more than 5 million completely destroyed.

"Right now, we're focusing on people's immediate needs and guaranteeing their well-being," he said.

As he spoke, refugees continued to pour out of the devastated mountain regions, most bringing with them little more than the clothes on their backs.

"All these refugees have lost their homes," Li told The Associated Press. "Their clothes and possessions are buried."

At one sporting goods store in Mianyang, dozens of people clamored for tents, pushing and shouting outside the small storefront and waving fistfuls of cash in the air. A worker at the store stood atop a counter facing them and handed out tents in black bags after taking their cash.

Parked on the street outside the store, men selling tents from their white van were similarly mobbed.

Small tents cost $39, medium-size ones $46 and large ones $58.

Beijing has welcomed international medical workers in the epic humanitarian relief effort, and a team of Russians with a mobile hospital arrived in Chengdu on Tuesday. Medical workers from Japan, Germany and Italy also were on their way.

President Bush visited the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Tuesday to offer his condolences and extend willingness to help to the Chinese people.

"We stand with you during this tragic moment as you mourn the loss of so many loved ones and search for those still missing," Bush wrote in a condolence book and then paused for a moment of silence.

When China began a three-day national mourning period Monday, people across this country quietly understood it as marking an unofficial end to the search and rescue phase after the disastrous quake.

Yet, reports of miraculous rescues, while diminishing, continued to be heard. The Chinese state news media reported Tuesday that 129 students and 10 teachers had been rescued in an isolated small town in Wenchuan County.

Early reports about the rescue in the town of Yinxing, carried by the official Xinhua news agency, provided few details about the condition of the students or the circumstances of their rescue, and could not be confirmed. The survivors were said to have been ferried to Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital, aboard eight military helicopters and taken immediately for medical care.

State media reported that a 31-year old worker had been rescued at a damaged hydroelectric power plant. Ma Yuanjiang survived for 178 hours by drinking his own urine through an empty water bottle and eating four pieces of paper he found in the dark, the report said.

Information from The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times is included in this report.