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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 18, 2002

Floods, Landslides Continue to Harass China

Floods, landslides and mudflows - the season's worst rain-induced calamities - continue to pose a severe threat to many parts of the country.


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Floods, landslides and mudflows - the season's worst rain-induced calamities - continue to pose a severe threat to many parts of the country.

The waterway of China's longest river, the Yangtze, was closed Friday at the Three Gorges at Yichang in Hubei Province as a precaution against the season's flood peak.

The peaking floods, the most voluminous so far this year, forced the closing of the water-diversion canal and the temporary shiplock of the Three Gorges project through which all ships must pass during construction, according to the latest reports.

The closure will affect hundreds of passenger ships, forcing authorities to shuttle thousands of passengers across the dam site with buses.

By Saturday, the flood, caused by torrential rains in Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality and other areas upstream, is expected to crest with 46,000 cubic metres of water per second passing through the construction site of the huge Three Gorges Dam, navigation officials said.

Navigation must be limited at the dam's diversion canal as soon as floodwater hits a volume of 30,000 cubic metres, the officials said.

And temporary shiplifts must be closed when water-flow reaches 45,000 cubic metres per second, they added.

Elsewhere, heavy rains over the past few days have caused floods, landslides and mudflows in Jiangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces. At least 133 people have been confirmed dead.

The latest casualties push this year's flooding death toll to more than 900 based on recent official statistics and subsequent reports.

By July 8, at least 793 people were reported killed by the floods that have swept over China's 25 provinces.

More than 100 million people have been affected in some way, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Early this month, rainstorms and floods killed 108 people in Central China's Hunan Province, according to local officials.

Heavy rains have been hitting the province since August 5, causing severe floods and landslides, which are damaging major railways and highways, the officials said.

The disaster has affected 38 million people in Hunan and has caused some 18.4 billion yuan (US$2.24 billion) in economic loss.

The local government has mobilized military forces to help evacuate the affected people and reconstruct the roads.

Quilts, clothes and food have been delivered to many stricken areas across the country.

Flood, Landslide Toll Rises in Yunnan
A week of torrential rain has caused a series of floods and landslides in southwest China's Yunnan Province, leaving 36 dead and many missing.

Early Saturday morning, work huts at a construction site of the Xiaowan Hydropower Station under construction on the Lanchang River in Yunnan were demolished by a sudden landslide. Five workers have so far been confirmed dead with 10 missing and 11 injured.

Rescue workers are clearing debris, and have set up warning signs in dangerous sites to avoid further landslides at the construction site.

Since Aug. 14, Xinping County in Yunnan has had an unprecedented number of landslides. They have killed 31 people, left 36 missing and cut a 50-meter wide chasm on the mountain side.

"I had never seen such a terrible natural disaster in my life,"said a 70-year-old woman surnamed Han, whose 24-year-old granddaughter was killed while drawing water from a well in her yard.

Many village houses were washed away by the floods. Villagers said that there is little chance of survival for the missing people.

Disaster relief trucks are shuttling backwards and forwards in the rain along muddy roads leading to the affected areas.

The county has received 1.4 million yuan in donation for disaster relief.

21 Killed, 8 Missing in East China Mountain Torrents
Twenty-one people had been killed and 8 others reported missing in Zhejiang as powerful mountain torrents triggered by heavy rain hit the coastal provincein east China over the past few days, local government officials announced Saturday in Hangzhou.

The torrents, which started on Thursday and affected about 89,000 people, hit the Jinhua, Quzhou and Lishui regions of Zhejiang,destroying 4,210 houses and over 6,400 hectares of farmland, said sources with the Zhejiang provincial command of flood and drought control.

More than 30 villages in Quzhou City were struck by unstoppablemountain torrents on Thursday afternoon and the flood waters did not recede until 5 p.m. Friday, local sources said.

In some places, the torrents also caused landslides which destroyed roads and bridges and cut off local traffic and communications.

The Zhejiang provincial government has sent officials to the affected areas to organize rescue and relief work, sources said.


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Flood, Landslide Toll Rises in Yunnan

21 Killed, 8 Missing in East China Mountain Torrents

Floods Kill 108 in Central China's Hunan Province





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