By Lucy Hornby
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - China tried to restore calm inits southwestern city of Chengdu on Tuesday after tens ofthousands of people rushed into the streets alarmed by atelevision prediction of another powerful earthquake.
That, added to fresh aftershocks and forecasts of heavyrain, have compounded difficulties for military, government andprivate workers trying to ensure food and housing for millionsof homeless.
Residents of Chengdu, Sichuan province's capital, rushedout for open space before midnight on Monday, alarmed by theprediction of another earthquake after May 12's 7.9 magnitudetremor, which may have killed 50,000 people.
A few hours later, a 5-magnitude aftershock rattled windowsin Chengdu and likely caused more landslides on the roadsleading to Pingwu, the epicentre of the aftershock, wheredestroyed roads have hampered relief efforts.
But on Tuesday, provincial television broadcast interviewswith a series of seismologic bureau officials to explain theprediction and calm a jangled populace.
"Just because you can feel aftershocks, it doesn't meanthey will hurt you. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldstand in harm's way," said Han Weiding, researcher with thelocal seismological bureau.
Seismologists say that earthquakes are very hard topredict.
The pandemonium showed how nerves have been stretched tobreaking point by the earthquake and aftershocks, which haveofficially killed more than 34,000 people and injured 245,000.
"I think the television coverage is overdoing it. They'rescaring people," said a hotel worker surnamed Li, who spent thenight in a public park.
Cars jammed roads leading out of Chengdu on Tuesday. Therewas no report of damage to Pingwu, but Xinhua news agency saidon Monday that 200 rescue workers had been buried in landslidessince May 12.
The road to Pingwu from the Sichuan plain was still closedto heavy trucks on Monday, complicating efforts to get food,water and tents to tens of thousands of homeless living ininaccessible areas.
The number of dead from the May 12 quake, the worst to hitChina since 1976, is expected rise dramatically. The CommunistParty chief in Sichuan said on Monday nearly 30,000 people weremissing and a further 5,000 were believed buried under rubble.
Rescuers had reached the most remote areas of the provinceby Monday, but roads to some 50 affected towns and villageswere still blocked by rocks and mudslides.
Whole towns have been flattened in mountainous areas northand west of Chengdu, and about 4.8 million people are homeless.Housing and feeding during the long-term rebuilding effort willprove a major challenge.
MORE SURVIVORS
There was a burst of elation in ruined Beichuan when a61-year-old woman was found alive under a mass of concrete. Aman trapped in a manganese mine in Qingchuan was also pulledout alive on Monday -- just before the pit collapsed, Xinhuasaid.
But rescuers mostly have the gruesome job of recoveringdecomposing bodies. Dozens of bodies were pulled from therubble in Beichuan on Monday, and rescuers scattered lime andsplashed disinfectant to prevent disease.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry appealed to theinternational community to provide more tents for about 4.8million people who lost their homes in the quake. And thecentral bank reiterated calls to set up branches and lend tocompanies in ruined areas.
So far, 10.8 billion yuan (794 million pounds) has beenreceived from donors at home and abroad, China said.
($1=6.990 Yuan)
(Editing by Nick Macfie and John Chalmers)
(For more stories on China's quake, click on or follow thelink to Reuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org. For fullcoverage of the quake in China, click onwww.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/china))
