Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Death toll in decade causes China flooding worst death 701

Toll in decade Estimated 700 people killed this year as landslides and billions of pounds in damage for high water levels causes :

With the typhoon season rolling in, Liu Ning, general secretary of the government's flood prevention agency, told a news conference authorities must ramp up preparations.

Liu said "Since 60 to 80 percent of the annual rain level occurs in June, July and August, we should be prepared to prevent and combat potential disasters."

Tropical storm Chanthu is expected to hit China's southern island of Hainan and Guangdong province this weekend. Six to eight typhoons are expected this year.

He said already, three-quarters of China's provinces have been plagued by flooding and 25 rivers have seen record-high water levels.

State broadcaster China Central Television showed footage of soldiers and rescue workers searching through rubble and mud for survivors of a landslide in Ankang city in the northern province of Shaanxi, where 14 people have died and 35 remained missing as of Wednesday.
Basigng
Footage from Shaanxi and the southwestern province of Sichuan showed flooded shops and homes, with buses and cars driving down water-filled streets. Some residents waded through knee-deep water to stock up at the local supermarket.

Flooding, particularly along the Yangtze River basin, has overwhelmed reservoirs, swamped towns and cities, and caused landslides that have smothered communities, including toppling 645,000 houses. The Three Gorges Dam faced its highest levels ever this week and water breached the massive dam.

Liu said that, "Although water levels in the upper stretches of the Yangtze River have surpassed that of 1998, the flood situation is still not as severe because the Three Gorges Dam has played a key role in preventing floods along the river this year."

The waters have killed 701 people and left 347 missing. The overall damage totals 142.2 billion yuan ($21 billion), Liu said.

This year's torrential floods have hit farms especially hard, affecting 2.3 million acres (930,000 hectares) of crops, with more than 330 acres (133 hectares) destroyed by floods as of July 10, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

We know more from Associated Press in Beijing said that, flooding in China this year has killed 701 people, left 347 missing and caused billions of pounds in damage, a senior Chinese official has said.

Three-quarters of China's provinces have been hit by flooding and 25 rivers have seen record high water levels, causing the worst death toll in a decade, Liu Ning, general secretary of the government's flood prevention agency, told a news conference.

Aside from the dead and missing, 645,000 houses were toppled and overall damage totalled 142.2bn yuan (£13.7bn). All the figures, Liu said, were the highest China had seen since 2000.With the flood season far from over, this year is shaping up to be one of the most devastating since 1998, which was the worst in 50 years.

Flooding, particularly along the Yangtze river basin, has overwhelmed reservoirs, swamped towns and cities, and broken off hillsides causing landslides that have smothered communities.

Soldiers have been using bulldozers to plough through debris in search of survivors from separate landslides in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, while workers in other parts of the country scrambled to drain overflowing reservoirs and pile up sandbags to prevent further flooding, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Three people were killed late on Sunday night by landslides in Lingao county in Shaanxi province that also left 17 missing, Xinhua reported. In all, flooding and landslides from rain-soaked hillsides in Shaanxi have killed 37 and left a further 97 missing.

In nearby Sichuan province rescuers searched for 13 missing people after a landslide hit Xujiaping village, burying homes and blocking roads.Xinhua and the state broadcaster China Central Television reported that the Three Gorges Dam was dealing with its highest ever water levels when a flood crest passed the dam.

The government cited flood control along the Yangtze as one of the main reasons for the dam project that forced the relocation of 1.4 million people and cost 156bn yuan.


No comments:

Post a Comment