The people were sent to camps like the one outside Jiangyou, where an Associated Press reporter saw 12 to 15 people crammed into each of about 40 government-issued tents pitched on a hillside overlooking the river.
"We were told that so far it is the safest place for us to stay if the dam of the lake crashes," said Liu Yuhua, whose village of Huangshi was one of those emptied. "But we will have to move farther uphill if the situation turns out to be worse."
Another group of about 80,000 have already been moved out of the valley, Xinhua said.
More Aftershocks
Aftershocks also continued to rattle the region, causing more damage and injuries and jangling the already-frayed nerves of survivors.
Two temblors Tuesday caused more than 420,000 houses to collapse in Qingchuan county, Xinhua reported. Sixty-three people were injured, including six who were critically hurt.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured a magnitude 5.2 aftershock just after 4 p.m. local time (4 a.m. EDT) and one measuring 5.7 about a half-hour later.
The aftershocks jolted nerves already frazzled by a major temblor Sunday that knocked down thousands of buildings that had survived the initial quake and killed eight people.
One quake expert said that aftershocks in the area could continue for several months, though they would grow weaker as time passes.
"Judging from previous earthquakes of a similar magnitude, this time the aftershocks may last for two or three months," He Yongnian, a former deputy director of China Seismological Bureau, told Xinhua.
The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. China's Cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed, with 20,790 still missing.
(See photos of the quake devastation.)
Storms on Horizon
Adding to the urgency of operations, thunderstorms were forecast for parts of Sichuan this week—a foretaste of the summer rainy season that accounts for more than 70 percent of the 24 inches (61 centimeters) of rain that falls on the area each year.
Officials said that there was no threat to artificial dams in the mountainous region that were weakened by the quake.
At one dam site near the town of Mianyang, villagers working in nearby rice fields said cracks had appeared in the dam wall after the quake but that government workers had reinforced it with steel rods.
In the town of Yingxiu, explosives were used to demolish some damaged buildings, a new element to the massive cleanup operation and a further sign that officials have stopped rescue and recovery efforts in some places.
Teams have been pulling down creaky buildings across Sichuan using mostly excavators, bulldozers, and other heavy machinery.
On Monday, the giant panda Xi Xi was captured near its Wolong reserve area home, one day after officials had made a sighting of the missing animal.
Although the reserve is located near the epicenter of the quake, the bulk of its giant pandas escaped the devastation unscathed, though one remains missing.
Threat of Disease
Also on Tuesday, health officials said higher-than-normal rates of stomach pains and fever had been reported among the millions of quake survivors, but that no major disease outbreaks had occurred.
About 5 million people were left homeless by the quake, and many are living in tents or makeshift camps clustered throughout the disaster zone.
Qi Xiaoqiu, the director of disease prevention at the Health Ministry, said the quake had knocked out much of the region's health infrastructure. He said 12 field hospitals had been erected and tens of thousands of health professionals sent into the zone.
"With the destruction by the quake, the living and sanitary conditions have worsened for the local population," Qi said in Beijing. "Their physical conditions are weakened, [they are] more vulnerable to disease."
Tuberculosis, hepatitis, diarrhea, and other conditions remained a threat, but so far no outbreaks had been reported, he said.
