Eleven people were killed, one is missing and more than 100 were
injured by rainstorms that have hit northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region since last
Saturday, local civil affairs sources said on Thursday.
More than 154,000 people were affected by floods and landslides
triggered by the rainstorms, and 38,500 people were evacuated,
according to the sources.
More than 23,000 houses were destroyed, and 12,000 hectares of
crops were damaged, with direct economic losses exceeding 347
million yuan (about US$46.3 million).
Traffic on several major highways in the region has been
disrupted while power supply and telecommunication systems were
affected.
The regional capital Urumqi alone received an average of 63.2 mm
of rainfall between 6:00 PM on Monday and 11:00 AM Tuesday, the
largest volume in history, the municipal meteorological bureau
said.
The heavy rain is expected to continue in the northern and
eastern parts of Xinjiang on Thursday and Friday, according to the
regional meteorological bureau.
In southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, more than 80 vehicles
are stranded on a highway, where rainstorm caused severe cave-ins
early on Thursday.
The cave-ins occurred at more than 30 locations within five
kilometers on state highway No. 318 that links Tibet with the
neighboring Sichuan Province, said sources with the
traffic management arm of the People's Armed Police.
The accidents hollowed about 2,900 cubic meters of the highway
between 3,482 and 3,487 kilometers, in the mountainous Markam
County of Qamdo Prefecture in eastern Tibet.
Traffic is expected to resume at 4:00 PM on Thursday, said Li
Hong, an armed police officer in charge of the road work.
Heavy rain has battered several localities in central, eastern
and southwestern China this week. In Chongqing Municipality alone, 35 people are
dead and 11 missing.
(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2007)