Floods, waterlogging in rain-battered SW, S China
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E-mail Xinhua, May 24, 2012
Rainstorms are continuing to batter China's southwestern and southern regions, with floods leaving casualties and waterlogging.
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Heavy rainfall hit China's Guizhou Province on Tuesday, May 22, 2012. |
As of Wednesday afternoon, downpours have killed at least two people and damaged over 200 houses in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said provincial authorities.
The heavy rain, which has affected the region since early this week, has also led to waterlogging and mudslides in several cities and counties in Guangxi. Some major rivers in the costal areas have also broken their banks.
Fearing flash floods and other geological disasters, authorities have evacuated low-lying areas of Lingyun County in Guangxi of around 1,500 people, a county government spokesman said.
In the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, torrential rain has left one dead and another missing, according to local flood-control authorities.
Torrential rain has also damaged roads, inundated croplands and disrupted power supplies and telecommunication networks in some areas of Guangxi and Chongqing.
On Tuesday, a rainstorm-triggered landslide disrupted traffic on a stretch of national highway in Chongqing.
The landslide, which happened at around 11 a.m. Tuesday beside the Wulingshan Tunnel on the No. 319 National Highway, resulted in an accumulation of more than 10,000 cubic meters of earth and stone.
Traffic from Qianjiang District to Pengshui County in Chongqing has also been cut. And it is not expected to resume until Thursday, according to rescuers.
At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the National Committee for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly issued a national-level warning over rainstorms and floods in the regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou.
Authorities also called upon local governments to be ready for disaster relief work to minimize the losses.
Local authorities have warned of landslides, flood and other follow-up disasters, encouraging people to relocate to avoid risks.
As rainstorms also blocked roads and broke the supply of water and electricity in some affected regions, local disaster relief offices have been working to send goods and funds to disaster-hit areas.
The rainstorms will continue battering south, southwest China as well as regions south of the Yangtze River, said the National Meteorological Center.
Heavy rain, thunderstorms and hailstorms will hit those regions over the next three days, according to the center.
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