Beijing: Fresh rains lashed several parts
of southern China, killing at least seven persons and triggering floods and landslides forcing over 55,000 people to
evacuate, local authorities said.
Over the last two days, several parts of southern
China, including Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Anhui and
Zhejiang province, are witnessing heavy rain. Meteorological
forecasts suggests that it will continue to do so till Friday
in some of the regions, Xinhua news agency reported.
Three people were killed by lightning in Guizhou in
the last two days, while four other were killed in the
northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region due to heavy
downpours and hailstorms.
More than 53,000 people had been evacuated in Hubei
City of Xianning, as downpours had raised the level of a local
river by five meters as of 7 pm yesterday, according to local
authorities.
Flooding and landslides triggered by earlier rounds of rainstorms had left 105 people dead and 63 more missing in the south over the past 10 days, the Ministry of Civil Affairs
said.
The Wuhan Central Meteorological Observatory issued
four rainstorm alerts from Monday night to get residents in
Hubei brace themselves for the torrential rain, Xinhua
reported.
Twenty-four counties and cities in Hubei have received
over 50 mm of rainfall over the past day and the precipitation
in Gong`an and Yingcheng has reached nearly 100 mm, said Xu
Shuangzhu, chief weather forecaster at the observatory.
In the already hard-hit Yueyang city in Hunan, the new
round of rain further damaged the embankments of several
reservoirs, and last week, flash floods and landslides caused
by the largest rainstorm in 300 years killed 29 people and
left 20 missing.
City authorities have ordered the repair of the
damaged embankments, checks on all reservoirs for problems,
and the evacuation of downstream residents who might be in
danger.
In the city of Huangshan in southern Anhui, water overflowed from 35 reservoirs and exceeded the warning levels
in 124 reservoirs, according to the city flood control and
drought relief headquarters.
The flood control agency has also ordered precautions
and checks for potential geological disasters and the
relocation of residents.
PTI
