Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain continued to
wreak havoc across parts of southern China over the weekend.
A total of 877 residents were evacuated from their homes on
Saturday in Wuzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, bringing the
number of evacuees from the city's flood-affected areas to
100,000.
All the evacuees are living in local schools or temporary
shelters on high ground, according to the Wuzhou municipal
government.
Wuzhou was hit by rainstorms on Thursday, which triggered
landslides, mud flows and flash floods, leaving 14 people dead and
27 others injured.
Meanwhile in East China's Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou's famous West Lake
was far from "paradise on earth" as force 11 winds overturned 16
tourist boats and uprooted 629 trees, the worst damage since
1988.
Also in the province, seven people working at a construction
site under a bridge in Hangzhou Bay were blown into the water by a
strong gust of wind and are still missing, local officials
said.
In neighboring Fujian Province, residents of Changting County
escaped unhurt after the bank of a river broke and flooded nearby
villages on Thursday, the local government said. Eleven villages
were flooded, but "no injuries were reported and water levels are
receding", officials said on Friday. The site of the breach has
been plugged.
Four passenger trains bound for the provincial capital Fuzhou
have been halted in Shanghai, officials with the city's railway
station said.
At the same time, more than 4,000 passengers were evacuated in
Minqing after heavy rains washed out an approximately 300-meter
section of track on the Minqing-Fuzhou line on Saturday.
More than 100 buses have been dispatched from Fuzhou to drive
passengers to the city, reports said.
Statistics indicated that by Friday, the floods in Fujian had
killed 25 people with five still missing. Approximately three
million people have been affected by the storms in one way or
another.
In South China's Guangdong Province, people in Heping County
had to leave their homes after a series of landslides hit the area,
China Central Television reported at the weekend. However, the
report did not give any details on when the landslides occurred or
if there were any injuries.
Officials with the provincial anti-flood headquarters said
yesterday that water levels in four major Pearl River tributaries
were declining rapidly thanks to a decrease in rainfall.
(China Daily June 12, 2006)