In Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, which has been hit by a
continuous heavy rain, a total of 38 people have been reported dead
and another 34 people have been missing since last Thursday.
The latest statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs
showed that a total of 4.924 million people in Shaanxi's 67
counties and districts were hit by the disaster.
The ministries of civil affairs and finance have allocated an
emergency fund of 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) and 6,500 tents
to the province to help local people resettle in areas away from
the flood-stricken area.
The second flood crest on Weihe River had passed Huayin County
in eastern Shaanxi yesterday. With the end of the continuous heavy
rain, the water level in the river started to drop down slowly.
The Weihe River, the Yellow River's largest tributary which
crosses central Shaanxi from west to east, witnessed historically
high water levels caused by heavy rain, and the embankments of the
Weihe River's tributaries burst in five places on Monday.
The serious flooding of the Weihe River went back to its
tributaries and met with the flood in the tributaries, forming a
forceful flow to break the banks of the tributaries, according to
local flood prevention office.
The latest statistics showed that some 46,000 houses and 318,000
hectares of farmland were destroyed in the flood. The direct
economic loss reached 3.02 billion yuan (US$363.8 million).
Weather forecasts that the rain will last until September 6, and
flood prevention is still the top priority in Shaanxi, the
headquarters said.
In Central China's Henan Province, 36 counties have suffered
from the heavy rains and the flooding it caused, the local Dahe
Newspaper reported yesterday.
Ten people lost their lives in the flood and a total of 14.64
million people were affected.
The flood had also ruined 1,189 hectares of farmland and damaged
38,000 houses by noon on Monday, causing a direct economic loss of
4.2 billion yuan (US$506 million).
However, the continuous rainfall has also relieved the drought
that has recently prevailed in northern areas of China.
"The heavy rainfall enables reservoirs to save more water to
prepare for days of drought,'' said Zhou Yiming, an official with
the national flood control and drought relief headquarters.
Zhou said that the upper reaches of the Yangtze River also saw a
bigger flow in recent days, with a daily flow of 30,000 cubic
meters.
(China Daily September 3, 2003)
