Context: News reports indicate that the poorer, rural villages were hardest hit. Swaminathan Krishnan, assistant professor of civil engineering and geophysics at the California Institute of Technology said: "the earthquake occurred in the rural part of China. Presumably, many of the buildings were just built; they were not designed, so to speak." Swaminathan Krishnan further added: "There are very strong building codes in China, which take care of earthquake issues and seismic design issues. But many of these buildings presumably were quite old and probably were not built with any regulations overseeing them."

Question: What areas were the hardest hit?
Answer: the poorer, rural villages

Question: Who was an assistant professor of civil engineering and geophysics at the California Institute of Technology?
Answer: Swaminathan Krishnan

Question: What part of China did the earthquake occur in?
Answer: rural part

Question: What did Swaminathan Krishnan mean when he said the buildings were just built?
Answer: not designed

Question: What manner of building codes are there in China?
Answer: very strong

Question: What were many of these old buildings built without?
Answer: regulations