Trio of earthquakes damages 5000 homes in northeast China

Northeastern China has been rattled repeatedly in the past two days by a trio of earthquakes measuring 5.0 or higher, seismologists said Saturday. The shakers damaged scores of homes in Jilin Province and repeatedly sent thousands of residents hustling out of their homes, China's official Xinhua news agency said. "I was sitting on the bed, and suddenly the house wobbled as if it had started to walk," Li Yun, 60, told Xinhua in the village of Chaganhua. No causalities were reported, however provincial officials told Xinhua nearly 16,000 people had to be evacuated and 5,302 homes were listed as seriously damaged. Relief efforts were hampered by a chilly fog in much of the area. Xinhua said a blizzard was in the forecast for the region in the next few days. The largest of the three quakes was a magnitude 5.8 that occurred around dawn Saturday. It was sandwiched between a 5.3 quake Friday afternoon and a 5.0 Saturday morning. All were centered at relatively shallow depths in the Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County.