Bad weather caused at least 300 flights to be delayed at
Beijing's Capital International Airport yesterday while torrential
rain continued to batter parts of the country.
"Thunderstorms and Typhoon Ewiniar have caused the problems,"
said Liu Yanan, an airport official.
"Thunderstorms covered the whole area around the airport, so
none of our planes could take off," said Chen Xibing, a senior
manager of operation control with Air China.
Most of Air China's planes returning to Beijing were ordered to
land at other airports in nearby cities, he said.
Fortunately, the skies began to clear up in the afternoon.
"Operations returned to normal at around 3:30 PM, but flights
that reported thunderstorms en route will still have to wait," Liu
said.
As Typhoon Ewiniar turned north towards the Korean Peninsula
yesterday, Air China and China Eastern cancelled flights to South
Korea.
"For the sake of passenger safety, we had to make such a
decision that was in line with our emergency plan," Chen said.
Planes heading to Japan from Beijing made a detour around
Shanghai and reached their destinations safely, he added.
Meanwhile, torrential rain in areas south of the Yangtze River
has caused further damage.
In central China's Hunan Province, mountain torrents in Loudi,
Yiyang and four other cities have since July 6 affected more than
360,000 people through power and communications disruptions.
Local civil affairs departments relocated 720 residents in one
emergency and more than 360 people were rendered homeless after
their houses were damaged by rising water levels, reports said.
Provincial authorities have allocated 1.5 million yuan
(US$185,000) as emergency funds to disaster-hit Liuyang City.
Provincial meteorological departments have warned that the heavy
rain would continue today.
In east China's Anhui Province, heavy rainfall hit Chuzhou and
Bozhou yesterday morning, forcing local meteorological departments
to issue warnings to local citizens, reports said.
Li Baojun, a disaster relief official, told China Daily
yesterday that the Ministry of Civil Affairs is raising disaster
release funds for hard-hit areas like Hunan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Geological disasters such as mud-flows and landslides, which are
mainly caused by heavy rain, have left 121 people dead or missing
in the first half of the year, the Ministry of Land and Resources
said yesterday.
Casualties are slightly lower than the average figure for the
last five years thanks to accurate forecasts.
From January to May, local land and resources departments
successfully predicted 37 meteorological disasters and relocated
3,436 people in advance, ministry officials said.
(China Daily July 11, 2006)
