The death toll of lightning strikes in east China's Jiangxi and Zhejiang Provinces has risen to?40 as
local meteorological authorities announced more deaths on
Tuesday.
The meteorological authorities in Jiangxi said 35 people, up
from the previous report of 32, had been killed by lightning since
Saturday night, including 12 people hit while working in the fields
outside the city of Shangrao. Two others, a 56-year-old woman and
her 14-year-old grandson, were also killed when the corrugated iron
roof they used for shelter was struck.
Two urban residents of Nanchang City died from lightning strikes
while huddling together underneath a tree and two other people from
rural areas died after their house collapsed from torrential
downpours.
In addition, lightning killed five people on Monday while they
were building a tomb in Zhejiang.
Another 11 were killed and 12 are missing because of floods or
collapsed houses as a result of rainstorms sweeping China's
central, east, and southern regions over the weekend, according to
the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Rain began to lash northern and central areas of Jiangxi on
Saturday night. At least 12 counties received more than 50
millimeters of rainfall and 38 counties registered more than 25
millimeters of rainfall on Monday.
In the worst hit area of Shangrao, 516,700 people are affected
and 5,000 have been relocated. More than 16,000 hectares of crops
are affected and 342 houses collapsed, incurring losses of 70
million yuan (US$9.1 million).
Local meteorological stations have warned that lightning storms
and rain will not subside until Wednesday; On average, 50 people
die each year in Jiangxi from lightning strikes.
Officials with the Jiangxi meteorological authorities said that
most of the lightning strike victims were farmers who were not
fully aware of the dangers, and blamed the lack of shelter in the
countryside for the deaths.
Rainstorms have hit central China's Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei
provinces and east Shanghai, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, affecting about
167,500 hectares of crops, destroying 19,200 hectares, according to
the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
More than 8,100 houses were destroyed and 34,000 damaged. About
73,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
The disasters have caused overall economic losses of more than
1.06 billion yuan (US$139 million).
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2007)