Quake reminder

As one of the major causes behind the

high death toll in the April 14 Yushu earthquake, adobe houses point to the underdevelopment in the remote county in western China.

Most of the houses in the area are traditionally constructed with adobe and crumbled into pieces as soon as the quake struck. People in these damaged structures choked to death under the debris. That is mainly why the death toll from the tremor has exceeded 1,700. The number of those injured in the disaster hit more than 12,100 in Yushu, which has a population of 100,000.