Typhoon Pabuk has wreaked havoc in Zhanjiang, a coastal city of
South China, bringing in the heaviest showers in two centuries.
Heavy rainfall has affected 1.17 million people in Zhanjiang and
the cities of Maoming and Meizhou, causing economic losses of 1.34
billion yuan (US$176 million), Xinhua reported yesterday.
Floods have damaged a long stretch of the Zhanjiang-Leizhou
Highway and the Guangdong-Hainan Railway, forcing the cancellation of a
number of trains.
The Tangjia Township in Leizhou has been the worst hit,
receiving 739 mm of rainfall in 24 hours, the heaviest in 200
years.
Intermittent showers pushed up water levels to record highs in
two dams in Leizhou yesterday. The water levels in five Zhanjiang
reservoirs have crossed the danger mark.
Water in the Dawan reservoir was threatening to overflow,
forcing relief workers to dig channels to bring the level down
during the weekend.
Shipping services in the Qiongzhou Strait between Guangdong and
Hainan were suspended for more than 10 hours before being resumed
yesterday morning.
Despite the grim situation, no deaths or missing cases were
reported as of yesterday, said Chen Xiangsheng, director of the
news office of Zhanjiang municipal government.
"Mudslides have damaged and blocked the Zhanjiang section of the
Guangdong-Hainan Railway, and it's not certain when the line can be
reopened," Chen said. The Guangdong-Hainan Railway is China's first
cross-sea line. It connects Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, with
Haikou, capital of the island province of Hainan.
More than 700 workers are trying their best to clear and repair
the tracks.
Shaanxi devastated
At least 25 people were killed in the devastation caused by
torrential rains in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province in the past four days,
raising the total death toll to 48.
Twenty-three people were killed in Shangluo city on August 1,
local flood control authorities said. At least 65 people are still
missing in the province. Of the missing 28 were washed away in
floods in Shangluo last month. The others were swept away in
central and southern Shaanxi, provincial flood control officials
said.
Local government in southwest China's Yunnan Province said on
Monday that eight people were killed and one is missing after flash
floods triggered by rainstorms hit the Yuanjiang Hani-Yi-Dai
Autonomous County Saturday night and Sunday.
In east China's Shandong Province, six people were killed when a
rainstorm swept over Qingdao and Rizhao cities over the
weekend.
In southwest China's Sichuan Province, a mud and rock flow hit an
under-construction hydropower station in Ya'an city around midnight
on Friday and killed at least 10 people.
Two persons are still missing, and about 150 soldiers and police
officers are searching for them.
Heavy and continuous showers have caused more than half of the
large and medium sized reservoirs in East China's Shandong Province to overflow, local
authorities said yesterday.
Services on the South Xinjiang Railway in Northwest China have
been suspended because winds of up to 117 km an hour have been
sweeping across the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Across the country, 1,279 people have died and 239 are missing
due to natural disasters in south, northwest and east China during
the first seven months of the year, according to Ministry of Civil
Affairs figures released last week.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2007)