Rescuers in China yesterday scrambled to locate dozens of people still missing a week after the year’s most powerful typhoon roared into the southern province of Hunan, while emergency workers rushed to seal breached dykes on swollen rivers.
Even before Typhoon Gaemi hit on Thursday last week, China was roiled by months of extreme weather that pummeled southern provinces with record rain and parched northern regions with heat waves. Weather officials are warning of more harsh weather this month.
The city of Zixing took the brunt of the typhoon in Hunan, lashed by 673.9mm of rain over 24 hours, local officials told a news conference, or the equivalent of one-quarter of its average annual rainfall.
Photo: AP
The most powerful typhoon to hit China this year, Gaemi has killed 30 residents of the city, with 35 missing, local officials said.
“Typhoon Gaemi brought great damage to Zixing,” provincial disaster prevention official Xiao Yingbin said. “It was a very serious natural disaster.”
Power supply was knocked out in 149 villages and communications cut in 78, while 1,641 houses were destroyed and 1,345 sections of road collapsed, an official said.
About 118,000 residents of Zixing, or one-third of its population, have been affected, and about 13,800 hectares of crops were damaged, the official added.
Rescuers must make every effort to find the missing, restore infrastructure and guard against disasters such as landslides, Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) said on Thursday during a visit to the city.
Across Hunan Province, the rains have affected 1.15 million people, with direct economic losses of 6.13 billion yuan (US$850 million).
Emergency workers rushed this week to seal a breached dyke on the Juanshui River, with two other dyke breaches reported on Sunday.
Last month was China’s hottest in modern history, mirroring record high temperatures elsewhere in the world fueled by climate change.
More harsh weather is in store for China this month, National Climate Center deputy head Jia Xiaolong (賈小龍) said on Thursday, with up to three typhoons to hit.
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