Mudslides take China storm toll to 188

China Travel Services

BEIJING: The death toll from severe rainstorms and flooding across China in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 115, state media said yesterday.

Torrential rain hit provinces including Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, forcing millions of residents to be evacuated, Xinhua news agency reported.

Local rescue teams, backed by the army, moved in to scoop families to safety. One baby was floated over the floods in a plastic basin and into the arms of waiting soldiers.

Eleven seamen were plucked to safety before a Russian vessel sank in stormy seas off the Chinese coast on Saturday, the news agency added.
Torrential downpours in southern Fujian triggered flash flooding and landslides that left 43 people dead and four injured, Xinhua said. Another 24 people were missing including 10 buried in a landslide in Zhangzhou city.

Rescuers were working frantically to dig them out, but officials said hopes of finding them alive were slim, the news agency said.

In the central province of Hunan, 39 people were confirmed dead where rescuers have evacuated 262,000 residents with another 112,00 cutoff by rising floodwaters, Xinhua said, citing official figures.

At least 4.3mn people across that province have been affected by the rainstorms and floods, Xinhua said, with some 34,000 houses toppled and 156,000 hectares of farmland damaged.
The local government allocated 9mn yuan ($1.13mn) to provide food and shelter to those evacuated.
In neighbouring Guangdong province, 33 people were killed and 1.32mn people hit by the rainstorms, Xinhua said.

Some 47,000 people had to be evacuated in the southern province where another 4,744 homes were also destroyed, it said.

Television news footage showed muddy floodwater gushing down the streets in various regions while many trapped residents awaited rescue.

Local meteorological authorities in Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces forecast more storms in their regions in the coming days.
Flooding cut the main Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, stranding 5,000 passengers at the station in Changsha, Hunan’s capital.

Tens of thousands more waited at Guangzhou station while workers raced to clear the line and railway workers worked overtime to provide refunds or to change tickets.

In the city of Lechang, where the streets were under 3m of water, more than 1,600 inmates were evacuated from the local prison, Xinhua said.
In Hunan, the dam of a reservoir could collapse at any time because trees brought down by the storm were blocking the sluice gates, Xinhua said. Seven other reservoirs were in a dangerous state.

Bilis wreaked havoc in the Philippines and Taiwan before veering towards China. It weakened after hitting the mainland last Friday.

Disaster officials put the number of dead at 28 in the Philippines, where on Saturday more bodies were found in swollen rivers and creeks and dug out from dozens of minor landslides.

The storm also caused one death in southern Taiwan.

Elsewhere, 43 people were killed in coastal Fujian province and 44 in neighbouring Guangdong, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Nine people were killed in south China's Guangxi region. Xinhua said Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces also suffered fatalities, but did not give details.

The rains swelled reservoirs, causing them to overflow, and swept away thousands of homes and destroyed crops.

Train lines were inundated and mines were flooded with torrents of water.

Xinhua said a 10,000-member repair crew was sent to repair China's main north-south railway line after it was submerged, delaying thousands of travellers. It was expected to take another few days before the line could resume service.

Economic losses of 6billion yuan ($1billion) were estimated for Guangdong and 3billion yuan for Fujian. In the poverty-stricken Guangxi region, officials said the storm had cost 300million yuan. No figure was given for losses in Hunan.

Typhoons hit China every year in the summer, causing hundreds of deaths. The country expects more storms than usual this year because of an unusually warm current off its Pacific coast and high temperatures on the Tibetan plateau.