SW China rainstorms leave 6 dead, 5 injured
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E-mail Xinhua, May 22, 2012
Six people have died and five others were injured after heavy rains hit southwest China's Guizhou Province from Monday evening to Tuesday, local authorities said.
From Monday evening to 8 a.m. Tuesday, downpours battered 18 cities and counties in Guizhou, affecting over 180,000 people, according to the provincial civil affairs department.
The rainstorms have damaged over 1,500 houses, including 207 that collapsed. Over 631 people have been relocated to avoid flood risks.
Heavy rains and floods have also affected more than 4,728 hectares of farmland, the department said.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Guizhou disaster relief office and civil affairs department jointly initiated level 4 emergency response, the highest level, and sent relief goods and funds to disaster-hit areas.
Meanwhile, a rainstorm-triggered landslide disrupted traffic on a stretch of national highway in neighboring Chongqing municipality on Tuesday.
The landslide, which happened at around 11:00 a.m. beside the Wulingshan Tunnel on No. 319 National Highway, resulted in an accumulation of more than 10,000 cubic meters of earth and stone and cut off traffic from Qianjiang district to Pengshui county in Chongqing, said Zhou Xinguo, deputy director of the district's transportation commission.
No casualties have been reported as a result of the landslide, and crews have rushed to the site to clear away debris.
Traffic is not expected to resume until Thursday, according to Zhou.
Some areas in south and southwest China, as well as regions south of the Yangtze River, will see heavy rain and storms from Tuesday to Thursday, according to the National Meteorological Center.
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