NU Online News Service, July 13, 1:42 p.m.EDT

Insurance losses are expected to be negligible from a 5.7magnitude quake that rocked China on Thursday evening, sendinghundreds of thousands to shelters in the Yunnan Province.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake occurred at7:19 p.m. local time (7:19 a.m. EDT) on Thursday, occurring 60miles east-northeast of Dali, Yunnan, China, and 1,320 milessouthwest of Beijing.

China's Xinhua News Service reported on Monday that a total of30,832 houses collapsed and another 625,000 were damaged.

Bingming Shen-Tu, principal scientist, seismologist atBoston-based catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide, said in a statementthat many homes in the area were built of either mud or low-qualityunreinforced masonry.

"Most were uninsured and did not adhere to building codes," hesaid.

AIR said that Southwest China, including the Yunnan Province, ispart of the country's north-south Seismic Belt--home to some of thelargest and deadliest earthquakes in China's history. This includeslast year's magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake in the centralprovince of Sichuan, the country's deadliest natural disaster inalmost 30 years. That event killed nearly 70,000 people and isestimated to have destroyed 5.36 million buildings, AIR said.

Moderate earthquakes are quite frequent in this area as well,AIR noted.

"Since 1955, a 5.0 magnitude event (or larger) has occurredevery 3-4 years within 62 miles of Yao An County--the location ofThursday's temblor," Mr. Shen-Tu pointed out.

He said a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the same area back inJanuary 2000, flattening tens of thousands of buildings. In thatcase, too, most of the buildings were of poor quality anduninsured.

Xinhua reported that the quake killed one person and injured367, of which 31 are critical.

Authorities have removed all 255,000 people they consideredendangered by continued aftershocks. They were relocated to tents,makeshift houses or homes of relatives, the news servicereported.

Xinhua said there have been a total of 800 aftershocks sinceThursday.