AFP: Death toll creeps towards 250 in devastating China floods (Photo)

August 18, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net)

BEIJING (AFP) - Almost 250 people were confirmed dead after a fortnight of torrential rains across large parts of China, state media reported.

From Yunnan province in the southwest over Hunan in the center to Zhejiang in the east, more bodies were discovered as new disasters struck and officials warned of more rain to come, Xinhua news agency said.

"The situation is very, very bad," Red Cross official France Hurtuise told AFP by telephone from rain-battered, mountainous Hunan.

"There have been quite a few casualties ... People have died mainly in landslides, and flashfloods have washed away not only mud huts, but entire brick houses," she said.

At one hospital in rural Hunan, the director lost both his wife and his mother-in-law when the end of the hospital where they were staying was washed away by floods, she said.

Hunan has had three major floods since June, culminating in a particularly severe one early this month, and a provincial spokesman said previously the official death toll had risen to 108.

In Yunnan, another badly-hit province, the toll increased steadily over the weekend as more bodies were discovered and new victims were added to the casualty list, Xinhua reported.

Five people were killed and 10 were missing after a landslide buried work huts at the construction site of a hydropower station on the Lancang river in western Yunnan Saturday, Xinhua said.

Torrential rain and floods have left 106 dead and 72 missing in the mountainous province since the beginning of the month, according to the China Youth Daily.

In Yunnan's Xinping county, the toll after rain-induced landslides cut a 50-meter (167-foot) chasm in the side of a mountain has risen to 33 dead and 30 missing.

"I have never seen such a terrible natural disaster in my life," Xinhua quoted a 70-year-old woman as saying.

The death toll from an earlier landslide in Yanjin, in northernmost Yunnan, rose to 22 on Saturday, when one more body was found. Seven others remain missing.

Xinhua said there was little hope of finding any survivors among the missing from various disasters in Yunnan.

In eastern Zhejiang province, 21 were confirmed dead and eight missing after powerful mountain torrents triggered by heavy rain hit dozens of villages, Xinhua said.

Altogether 89,000 people in the province have been affected by the torrents, while 4,210 houses and over 6,400 hectares (16,000 acres) of farmland had been destroyed, the agency said.

In several places the torrents had caused landslides that had buried roads and bridges in mud, cutting off communication and traffic.

In the northern part of Hunan, water levels in Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake, were reaching danger levels, Xinhua said.

As of late Saturday, the water in the lake had reached 31.94 meters (106 feet), just six centimeters (2.4 inches) short of the flood-warning mark, the agency said, citing Hunan flood control officials.

Dongting, which is on the flood-prone Yangtze and acts as a buffer for the river, is expected to swell further in the coming days as more rain falls, the officials told Xinhua.

By next Thursday, the water level in the lake could reach as high as 33.5 meters (112 feet), they warned.

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