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China Floods Take More Lives As River Dykes Threatened
Beijing (AFP) July 22, 2007 Another 74 people have died in floods across China bringing the death toll for the week to at least 156 in one of the deadliest rainy seasons in years, state media reported Sunday. The latest reported deaths from heavy rains that have spread misery across much of the country included dozens killed in recent days in the mountainous southwestern province of Yunnan, the Xinhua news agency said. Torrential downpours in the region triggered mudslides, landslides and heavy flooding that also destroyed more than 4,000 homes and ravaged crops, it said. The Yunnan death toll rose to 65 with reports Sunday of six more deaths. Four of those were mine workers in Tengchong county who were engulfed by a sudden landslide on Saturday while trying to clear up mud debris loosed by earlier rains. Two others came as rescuers on Sunday found the bodies of a pair of migrant workers missing in a landslide that swept through their work site on Thursday. The two bodies bring the toll from that landslide to 29. At least another eight people have been reported missing in the province. Mud and rockslides also closed the 176-kilometre (109-mile) Tengchong-Myitkyina highway linking China and Burma. In far-western Xinjiang province, nine people have been confirmed killed by floods, with two more missing, Xinhua said. Weeks of torrential rains in several provinces have made this year's summer rainy season one of the deadliest in years. Meanwhile, flood-control officials in eastern Anhui province warned that water levels in the surging Huaihe River, China's third-longest, could remain dangerously high for at least another 10 days. Dykes along the river have soaked for three weeks in the highest water levels since 1991, putting them at increased risk of breaching with more rain expected, Xinhua quoted officials as saying. More than one million people have been evacuated in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces along the river's course, Xinhua said. This past week has been especially deadly in China, with at least 40 killed and nine missing in eastern Shandong province and 42 dead, 12 missing in the southwestern Chongqing region following record-smashing downpours in both areas. China's death toll from natural disasters this year topped 700 by mid-July, with about half the fatalities coming this month, and at least 129 missing, Xinhua said on Friday. Millions have been evacuated or seen their homes flooded or destroyed.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Old And Infirm Struggle To Cope With Japan's Quake
Kashiwazaki (AFP) Japan, July 18, 2007As Japan gets to work rebuilding this quake-hit coastal town, life is proving hardest for the elderly and people with disabilities who are struggling to get their everyday needs. Compounding the difficulties, Japan's countryside is rapidly greying, leaving many elderly people without young people around to help them cope with the killer quake. |
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