Tracking Disasters in China

Organized by Zhou Tong

July 20, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net July 20 News) Jiang's regime has persecuted Falun Gong for four years already, from 1999 to the present. In these four years, natural and man-made calamities kept happening. This year, drought in northern China recurred, following droughts in the past several years. This was followed by the terrifying, life-claiming SARS disaster and then by the flood in the Huai River Valley, which caused huge losses. Now Hua'nan (southern China) and Huadong (eastern China) are experiencing a widespread heat wave.

It is the heavens that keep sending warnings to people. From ancient times until the present, for all the dynasties in history, her rulers' moral conduct closely related to the calamities that had befallen them. In the present era, for four years Jiang's regime has been and is still persecuting people who cultivate the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. That has lead to four years of frequent, strange omens and natural calamities all over China.

In Anhui Province alone, floods have affected about 34.78 million mu of farmland. From those, 9.67 million are a total agricultural loss. Up to 27 million people were affected by the flood. In the Huai River Valley, up to 30.34 million mu of farmland were hit by the flood and 22 million people were affected. People close to the disaster pointed out that this year's flood in the Huai River Valley exceeded the flood in 1991 in both the main riverbed water level and in its maximum rate of flow in the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River.

From July 11 to July 16, 40 counties/cities in Shaanxi Province experienced precipitation; the southern areas of Shaanxi Province experienced heavy rainstorms. This was the eighth extensive rainfall since the beginning of the flood season this year and also the heaviest one. The flood caused roadbeds to collapse and halted traffic along sections of Route 108 that runs across the country.

In Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, rainstorms caused mud and rock slides which resulted in six deaths and four people missing. On the evening of July 13, the eastern areas of Guangyuan City started to experience local, heavy rainstorms. On the evening of July 14, these rainstorms spread to the west; at 8:00 p.m. on July 15, most of the northeastern areas and the southwest areas of the city experienced widespread or heavy rainstorms.

On July 12, extremely heavy rainstorms and hail pelted Mulan Township and Jian'guo Township in Mulan County, Heilongjiang Province and caused two deaths. Reports said that, according to the measurement and calculation, momentary wind gusts reached Level 8; the largest hail reached three-centimeter-sized pellets (over one inch). Two farmers who were hit by the hail died. This extremely serious natural calamity experienced in Mulan County is the heaviest one of their records.

Since May 29, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, has continuously experienced rainstorms. Precipitation reached 240 millimeters, which was 2.6 times the precipitation of the same season in previous history. Because of these frequent rainstorms and lightning, reportedly 11 people had died as a result of flooding, lightning and drowning, and 19 people were wounded. These numbers of casualties were rare in recent years.

The temperature in Hunan Province kept climbing recently. At 3:19 p.m. yesterday, Changsha City experienced extremely high temperatures of 39.1^o C (104^o F), which is the highest daytime temperature since the beginning of the summer. This temperature also exceeded the temperature of 39.0^o C on August 14, 1992, which, according to Changsha City's current weather station documents, was a historical recorded.

On July 14, Fujian Province experienced the most widespread high temperature weather this summer. The highest temperatures in 45 counties/cities exceeded 38^o C; (100^o F) in 12 of the counties/cities in the middle and northern areas of the province, the highest temperatures exceeded 40^o C; (104^o F) in Minqing County, it reached 42.3^o C (109^o F). It is historically rare that these high temperatures occurred over such widespread areas. According to estimates, 18 counties/cities had the highest daytime temperature of the year since 1961; two other counties/cities had the highest temperature of the season since 1961.

From July 1 to July 16, the observatory recorded an average temperature of 29.9^o C (86^o F) in Hong Kong. The previously recorded highest temperature was 20 years ago, in 1983. This was also one of the two periods with the hottest weather of the season since record keeping begun in 1884. The clear weather also resulted in high levels of ultraviolet rays. The recorded ultraviolet index on July 12 was 14.0, the highest level since August of 1999, when the index measurement was introduced.

Since July 1, most areas in Jiangxi Province had clear, high temperature weather for over two weeks. Between July 14 and July 16, the highest daytime temperature in 53 counties/cities exceeded 40^o C (104^o F). The temperature in Lichuan County reached 41.5^o C. Such a high temperature lasting three days has previously not been recorded in weather history. In addition, nearly 30 counties/cities of this province experienced record high day-time temperatures. The enduring high temperatures resulted in serious drought. Currently 300 thousands hectares of farmland have been hit by the drought and, because of the drought, over 200 thousand people have difficulties obtaining drinking water.

Since July 1, 18 counties/cities in Guangdong Province have experienced temperatures exceeding 35^o C (approx. 91^o F) and the regions where high temperatures are prevalent keep expanding. As of July 8, 51 counties/cities in the province experienced high heat. Such long-lasting and wide spread high temperatures had previously only occurred in 1956, 1978, 1987, 1989, 1991. The average temperature over the same period of the year in other years, the situation we observe this year has rarely been seen throughout history. Forty-nine weather stations in the province recorded record high average temperature over the same period of the year. The duration of these high temperatures also approached a historical record.

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