Tents, food and water are now being trucked into Tibetan villages hit by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake after rescuers were able to open a main road Tuesday.

In Gedar, a town with more than 4,000 people in Damxung County, nearly every house had cracked walls after the quake hit at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.

It's epicenter was near Tibet's regional capital Lhasa.

Yangyi Village was hardest hit by the quake. Nine people died, 19 were injured and 127 homes toppled.

Another 20 residential houses were destroyed in neighboring Nyemo County but no casualties were reported.

Shortly after the road to Yangyi Village was restored around midnight, injured villagers were sent to a hospital for treatment.

"Most of them suffer traumas or bone fractures," said Tashi Namgyal, president of the People's Hospital, the leading hospital in Lhasa.

The hospital had sent six medical workers to the village.

Most quake victims were women, children and elderly people, while men were away mowing and storing forage grass for the winter, said Tsering Samdrup, a Yangyi villager.

Fearing their homes would collapse, most families stayed out in tents for the night amid continuous aftershocks. Some wept over the dead.

"I can't believe it," cried Nyima, a Tibetan herder who lost her two-year-old daughter.

At least 700 rescuers are working at the site.

(Xinhua News Agency October 7, 2008)