The 68 giant pandas at 2 research bases in Chengdu and Ya'an in Sichuan were all safe after Monday's devastating earthquake, the State Forestry Administration reaffirmed on Tuesday.

"We almost always have to turn people away," says Frank Dunne, whose Earthquake Resource Center in Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, organizes paying volunteers into weekend reconstruction teams.

It's "very likely" that the construction and filling of the reservoir in 2004 led to the quake, Fan Xiao, chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in Chengdu, told the newspaper.