Torrential rain leaves 40 dead in Yunnan

By Li Xinran  |   2008-8-13  |     ONLINE EDITION

FORTY people have died and six others are missing after torrential rain in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Torrential rain due to tropical storm Kammuri swept Yunnan's 11 cities or prefectures and triggered flooding and landslides.

About 1,250,000 people in Wenshan, Honghe, Zhaotong, Banna, Chxiong, Lijiang, Lincang, Puer, Baoshan, Dali and Dehong were affected.

More than 16,000 people were evacuated to safer areas by 4pm on Tuesday, while the disaster flattened more than 10,000 houses and damaged another 18,000.
About 11,000 of the total 107,000 hectares of crops hit by the rain will have no harvest this year.

Bad weather also disrupted traffic, communications and electricity and water supplies, according to Xinhua.

The central government has put its emergency response procedures into action and has sent a task force to the province.

More than 10 million yuan as well as 900 tents, 1,3970 quilts, 770 set of clothes, seven tons of rice and 500 barrels of edible oil have been sent to disaster-hit areas, Xinhua said.

Kammuri, the ninth tropical storm of the year, lashed southern China after its landfall in Guangdong Province last Wednesday, bringing strong winds of up to 100 kilometers an hour and the highest rainfall level in a century.

The storm was the third to hit China this season after tropical storm Kalmaegi in early July and typhoon Fung Wong in Fujian Province last week.

Flash floods and landslides brought by Kammuri since Saturday have battered mountain villages in northern Vietnam, killing more than 100 people and leaving 48 missing.