Property Damage
　　The earthquake left at least 5 million people without housing, although the numbercould be as high as 11 million. Millions of livestock and a significant amount of agriculturewere also destroyed, including 12.5 million animals, mainly birds. A million pigs died out of60 million in Sichuan Province.
　　China's President announced that the disaster response would be rapid.Just 90 minutesafter the earthquake, Chinese Premier, who has an academic background in geomechanics,flew to the earthquake area to oversee the rescue work. Soon afterward, China's HealthMinistry said that it had sent ten emergency medical teams to Wenchuan County insouthwest China's Sichuan Province. On the same day, China's Chengdu Military AreaCommand dispatched 50,000 troops and armed police to help with disaster relief work inWenchuan County. However, due to the rough terrain and close proximity of the quake'sepicenter, the soldiers found it very difficult to get help to the rural regions of the province.
　　By May 15, China's Premier ordered the deployment of an additional 90 helicopters, ofwhich 60 were to be provided by China's air force, and 30 provided by the civil aviationindustry, bringing the total of number of aircraft deployed in relief operations by the air force,army, and civil aviation to over 150, resulting in China's largest ever non-combat airliftingoperation. Xinhua reported 135,000 Chinese troops and medics were involved in the rescueeffort across 58 counties and cities.

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