Thousands of earthquake survivors in mountainous Pingwu county have been hit by pouring rain since midnight on Wednesday.

Floods and landslides triggered by the heavy rain have also blocked the county's main road and telecom services were down yesterday causing further delay to the delivery of relief supplies from the outside.

"When is it going to stop raining?" Wang Xin, a 28-year-old mother asked herself.

She was sitting on an abandoned sofa under a makeshift shelter in Gucheng town, Pingwu county.

Her house in a nearby village has been totally destroyed by the earthquake that struck on May 12.

She and her family are now staying with a relative.

But all of them are spending sleepless nights thinking of the quake and the pouring rain.

"It's the rainy season now and we are still short of tents," Wang Jinrong, an employee of the county's quake rescue headquarters, said.

The rain has made their lives even more miserable.

Water seeps through some tents forcing people to seek shelter under beams of the tumbledown houses which are still standing after the quake.

Due to the lack of tents, many people to have share one.

Du Yingqun, a man in his 70s, said he has to share a single bed with two other family members.

Some are preferring to take the risk to stay in their structurally weak homes than in the crowded tents, Yang Huiquan, a local resident, said.

The heavy rain is threatening to breach quake lakes formed in rivers, experts said.

These lakes were formed as landslides triggered by the earthquake blocked river courses.

There are five such lakes in Pingwu.

The lakes could put the county's population of 187,000 at risk.

Aftershocks are still being felt. And they are more frequent in the afternoons, residents said.

Supply of food and water remains stable. Each resident gets 1-kg of food and 10 yuan a day.

But new problems are on the horizon. As the weather improves there is a possibility of disease as dead bodies begin to decay, experts said.

(China Daily May 30, 2008)