Six people were killed in east China's Shandong Province when a rainstorm swept
through the eastern part of the region over the weekend.
The victims were from Qingdao and Rizhao; one was inside a house
when it collapsed, one was struck by lightning and four drowned in
rivers.
Shandong has been pounded by heavy rain since Thursday. The
average rainfall in the province from 6 am Thursday to 6 am Sunday
stood at 80.8 millimeters and Qingdao, alone, saw 221.2
millimeters.
A total of 2.43 million people in 12 cities were affected.
Fifteen were injured, 17,682 had their houses flooded and 68,928
were forced to evacuate.
Heavy rain also inundated 168,860 hectares of crops, toppled
2,930 houses, flooded 1,895 kilometers of roads, disrupted power
supplies and communications, and caused landslides.
Shandong is still recovering from its worst rainstorm this year
which came in July, when 40 people were killed and 197 others were
injured.
(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2007)
