Torrential rain and floods have killed seven people and spurred the evacuation of thousands from homes in China’s southern Hunan Province, lashed by record rainfall from the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi, state media said yesterday.
All the deaths have been in Hunan province. Heavy rains have been falling on eastern Hunan for days as Tropical Storm Gaemi moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength in China’s neighboring Fujian Province.
Four deaths and three missing people were reported in four villages in Zixing County, Xinhua News Agency said.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Xinhua / Chen Sihan
The bodies of three other missing people were found in a village in a nearby city, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said in an online report.
They were victims of a sudden mudslide caused by the rain, the report said.
Days of heavy rain have breached major dikes and dams, flooding swathes of cropland, with CCTV saying that the Chinese Ministry of Finance had earmarked 238 million yuan (US$32.8 million) for disaster prevention and agricultural aid.
Weather experts blamed the heavy rain in humid conditions on a combination of a southwest monsoon and the outer cloud system from Gaemi, the Beijing News reported.
In Zixing, the extreme weather has affected almost 90,000 people, damaging about 1,400 homes, tearing up about 1,300 roads and snapping power links to several villages, the People’s Daily said on its Web site.
Zixing has received record rain since Friday, with 24-hour rainfall exceeding 645mm at one spot, the newspaper said.
Two days of rain have raised the level of the Juanshui River, breaching three dikes, Xinhua news agency said, although one was filled in again on Monday.
The Juanshui flows into the Xiangjiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, and floods rose to a record in some parts, state media said.
Additional reporting by AP
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