The battle for survival here is as stark as anywhere in the earthquake zone.Wang Guofei and his younger brother drove Tuesday morning to look for their mother in the rugged county of Beichuan, where at least 5,000 people have died as a result of Monday's earthquake. But the road had been washed out by a landslide, and Wang said he would return the next day to search for his mother on foot.
"She has potatoes," he said. "She can live for a while."
Rescue workers across southwest China struggled to reach the tens of thousands of people who remained buried in the aftermath of the earthquake, and death tolls climbed above 13,000, according to provincial authorities. That toll is likely to rise still higher as workers break through to affected areas, making the earthquake China's deadliest natural disaster in three decades. Hundreds of thousands are injured or homeless.
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