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CHELYABINSK, Russia (AP) - More than 24,000 people, in Russia's Chelyabinsk region are working to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food and make other relief efforts, after an exploding meteor blew out windows in more than 4,000 buildings yesterday.

Some 1,200 people were injured, mostly by flying glass. The state news agency RIA Novosti reports 40 people remain hospitalized, two in serious condition.

The high-altitude explosion is estimated to have been as powerful as 20 Hiroshima bombs, and the region's governor (Mikhail Yurevich) says damage is estimated at 1 $33 million. He's promising to have all the broken windows replaced within a week.

But that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in Chelyabinsk was 10 F, and for many the immediate task was to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows.