Beijing: One person was killed and another went missing as rainstorms swept an eastern Chinese province, while heavy rains flooded the southwest, disrupting road traffic and forcing large-scale evacuation.
Torrential rain, the biggest in more than a century in cities of Zhangzhou and Xiamen in Fujian Province, have left one person dead and another missing, local officials said.
Rain also forced the evacuation of 89,200 people to safety and inflicted direct economic loss of 1.55 billion yuan (USD 252 million), state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Some neighbourhoods and villages in southern Fujian were flooded, as 400 houses collapsed while power to 81,000 homes was cut off in affected areas.
Meanwhile, floods inundates the Kunming city, capital of southwest Yunnan Province.
Precipitation has reached up to 190 mm thus far and rain-triggered floods have seriously disrupted road traffic, said Jiang Kaili, deputy director of the municipal flood control office.
Cars and taxis have become submerged and more than 200 inundated buses have been rendered unusable.
Jiang said the city`s drainage system has failed, resulting in floods in many areas in the city.
Water levels on the nearby Panlong River exceeded the height of a river bank near Shilichangjie Street today, according to the city`s drainage company.
The rain is continuing to batter the city. According to a provincial weather forecast, it will continue until July 25.
The city government today initiated an emergency response for flood control. More than 300 relief workers have joined in disaster relief efforts.
Heavy rain since Tuesday has also triggered floods in Hunchun in northeast China`s Jilin Province.
Officials with the water resources department of the city said 150 people from 15 villages in Hadamen Township have been relocated, as seven houses were toppled and 300 others were damaged in the floods.
Roads, a bridge and the embankment of a river were destroyed. In neighbouring Liaoning Province, two rounds of torrential rain since Monday have flooded more than 50 reservoirs.
The provincial traffic department has ordered traffic workers to inspect 34,000 bridges in the province and make necessary repairs, Liu Huanxin, chief of the department said.
The order came after a bridge collapsed on Tuesday following two days of heavy rain in the city of Fuxin, leaving four people dead.
PTI
