42 dead as storms sweep the nation
Print Edition
RAINSTORMS have left 42 people dead and another 74 missing across north and central China since Wednesday morning, in addition to traffic chaos and the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of citizens.
Torrential rain in Hebei Province has left 30 people dead and 68 missing, the provincial civil affairs department said yesterday. About 163,900 people had been forced to leave their homes.
The department has received reports of floods and landslides damaging more than 47,713 houses and 354,600 hectares of crops, causing traffic chaos, power outages and wreaking havoc with communications.
As of noon yesterday, direct economic losses from the rain-triggered disaster are estimated to have reached 4.75 billion yuan (US$711 million).
Relief supplies including tents, quilts and clothing have been distributed in the worst-hit cities, including Handan, Xingtai and the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang.
In neighboring Henan Province, 12 people were confirmed dead and six unaccounted for, the provincial flood control headquarters said. Storms forced the evacuation of 105,000 people, levelled 2,110 homes and damaged 20,720 hectares of crops.
Direct economic losses in Henan are estimated at 477 million yuan.
The National Commission for Disaster Relief and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have sent staff to assist the relief work.
Liaoning Province in the country’s northeast is experiencing its strongest rainfall of the year. Average precipitation there reached 69mm as of 3pm yesterday, with 391mm recorded in Suizhong County, the provincial weather bureau said.
The cities of Benxi, Dandong, Anshan and Fushun in the eastern part of the province were last night braced for more heavy storms.
Early yesterday morning the provincial weather bureau issued three red alerts for rain. A weather station in Huludao in western Liaoning recorded 395mm of rain, the highest since records began, though it had died away by evening.
Around 126,000 people across the province had been evacuated as of last night.
In central China’s Hubei Province yesterday, a section of a major north-south national highway flooded after a dike breach along a branch of the Yangtze River.
Traffic was temporarily disrupted as floodwater began to flow onto a local section around Bayi Bridge of National Highway 107, according to local transport officials.
National Highway 107 connects Beijing and Shenzhen, the boomtown in south China’s Guangdong Province.
Armed police are rushing to relocate residents and build an embankment to hold back floodwater and protect the highway from further flooding, sources said.
It was the second dike breach in Hubei yesterday after the Hanbei River punched a gap some 30 meters wide in an embankment, flooding a large area of farmland.
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