Floods kill at least 100 in southwest China
By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-07 22:45

At least 100 people are dead and 83 are missing after rainstorms triggered landslides and floods in Southwest China, local civil affairs officials said Tuesday.

Local residents paddle through a flooded street in the city of Chongqing, southwest China Tuesday. [newsphoto]

At least 67 people have been killed and 50 are missing in Sichuan Province, while 33 people have been killed and the same number reported missing in neighbouring Chongqing Municipality.

More than 450,000 people have been evacuated in the face of devastating storms, which have left 127,000 homes destroyed or damaged, brought down 400 bridges and washed away at least 720 kilometres of roads and thousands of hectares of farmland, the latest statistics show.

Many of the dead and missing in Sichuan are from Dazhou.

Hit by the heaviest rain in 200 years, there are 41 dead and 30 missing in Dazhou alone, local media reported on Monday.

The deaths were mainly caused by landslides and mountain torrents, mud and rock flows.

Local residents use a make-shift bridge to go into the building as the Chaotianmen area in Chongqing is flooded September 7, 2004. [newsphoto]

The cities of Nanchong and Bazhong have also been badly affected, although Dazhou, in the northeast of the province, was worst hit with 360 millimetres of rain since Thursday.

According to meteorologists the worst hit area in Chongqing, Kaixian County, has been drenched by 327.3 millimetres of rain which has poured down since Saturday.

Kaixian was completely flooded. Power and telecommunications were cut and the bridge linking it with neighbouring Wanzhou district was destroyed, reports China West Metropolis News.

Rescue operations were underway throughout the region although workers were finding it difficult to get to those more isolated areas, local civil affairs officials said.

Chongqing has earmarked 4 million yuan (US$481,000) to Kaixian County for disaster relief. More than 5,000 quilts and 50 tons of food have reached flood victims in the county, they said.

Local residents hold on to each other as they cross a swollen river in Kaixian, Chongqing, September 7, 2004. The death toll rose to 107 with another 88 missing in southwest China on Tuesday following a series of floods and mudslides. [Reuters]

Sichuan provincial government has earmarked 5 million yuan (US$602,000) while local governments in flood-stricken cities and counties have allocated 15 million yuan (US$1.8 million) to help the victims.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has earmarked 32 million yuan (US$3.8 million) and 8 million yuan (US$963,000) to Sichuan and Chongqing respectively to help assist the rescue effort.

The ministry has also sent a relief group to Sichuan to oversee rescue work.

The Red Cross Society of China sent 50 tents, 1,000 boxes of medicine and 2,000 quilts and woolen clothing to the southwest's flooding areas Tuesday.

The society has also sent an emergency rescue team to the disaster areas to join local Red Cross societies organizing the relief effort.

Respite from the incessant rains is, however, in sight.

According to Sichuan Meteorological Bureau, rain was expected to stop late last night.

And, they predict, for the coming days there will be no more.

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