Death toll from rainstorm climbs in SW China county
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Xinhua, June 17, 2011
The death toll has climbed to 37 in Wangmo County in southwest China's Guizhou Province since the downpours started on June 3, leaving 15 others missing and 1,715 injured, local authorities said Thursday.
As of 2 p.m. Thursday, rain-triggered floods had forced 45,400 residents to leave their homes in Wangmo, according to the provincial civil affairs bureau.
The floods have damaged 11,800 hectares of cropland, toppled 801 homes, damaged 4,813 homes, and have caused a direct economic loss of 1.86 billion yuan (about 287 million U.S. dollars)
The county has received 29.3 million yuan of disaster emergency funding from the central government and 20.65 million yuan of donations from private sources.
Rain-triggered floods have so far hit 32 cities and counties across Guizhou, affecting at least 863,000 people since June 10, and downpours and hailstorms hit six cities and counties of north, southwest and southeast parts of Guizhou from Monday to Tuesday, affecting 221,500 people, according to the civil affairs bureau.
The provincial weather bureau has forecast downpours and thunderstorms in most parts of Guizhou from Friday noon to Saturday.
Elsewhere, in Xincheng County of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 8,434 villagers had been urgently evacuated after 250 mm of rain fell within six hours on Wednesday night.
The cities of Beihai and Fangchenggang along Guangxi's coastline were also hit by heavy rains.
Xiangtan County in central China's Hunan Province also received up to 165 mm of rainfall per day from Tuesday to Thursday, causing floods and destroying infrastructure. The rain-triggered floods in the county had forced 4,387 residents to evacuate, causing 235 landslides and leaving 13,333 hectares of cropland damaged and 1,288 rural houses toppled.
Consecutive heavy rains have also wreaked havoc in east China's Zhejiang Province, where serious geological disasters have destroyed infrastructure, forcing at least 19,000 residents in 37 counties to evacuate and toppling 1,600 rural houses, according to the Zhejiang provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.
