Scores dead, 1.6 million displaced in China floods
BEIJING: Floods and landslides have killed scores of people in China’s central Hunan province as two weeks of torrential rains forced 1.6 million to flee, authorities said yesterday.
Some 53,000 homes have collapsed while nearly 350,000 others were seriously or partially damaged after 11 straight days of rain, according to Tang Biyu, deputy director of Hunan’s civil affairs department.
At least 63 people were killed by landslides, the flow of debris or the collapse of homes, while 20 more are missing, Tang said in a statement, which put the damage bill at US$ 5.6 billion.
Central and southern China have been hit by a deluge since last month.
Authorities in the southern region of Guangxi last week reported that two dozen people had been killed or gone missing due to flooding, which also damaged thousands of houses.
In late June, a massive landslide buried a village in southwest Sichuan province, killing at least 10 and leaving 73 more missing.
Meanwhile, the death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Japan’s south has risen to 20, local media reported Sunday, as rescue teams continued their search for survivors.
Swathes of Kyushu — the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands — have been left devastated after overflowing rivers and torrential downpours swept away roads, houses and schools this week.
Thousands of people have been evacuated to makeshift shelters in school gyms and public buildings, but many remain stranded, with emergency services battling through thick mud and rain to try to reach them.
Some 250 people were still cut off by Sunday, the Kyodo news agency said.
Collapsed bridges and waterlogged ground on steep hillsides were hampering rescue efforts, according to media.
A total of 20 people have died while more than 20 remain unaccounted for in the Fukuoka and Oita prefectures, Kyodo reported.
The government was doing its ‘utmost’ to recover those missing or stranded, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga earlier said in a rare weekend press conference.
Five people were in critical condition, Suga said, with the government still trying to ascertain if their injuries were a result of the severe weather.
Television footage showed rescue helicopters held up at a makeshift heliport — unable to fly because of the downpours, while people prayed for the safety of their family members.
More than 50 centimetres of rain deluged parts of Kyushu in 12 hours on Wednesday, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to warn of possible significant damage.
Rains have continued intermittently since, with up to 22 centimetres recorded in Fukuoka in the past 72-hour period.
Japan’s weather agency on Sunday warned of continued heavy rains and mudslides in northern Kyushu. — AFP