Devastation reigns as storms hit six provinces
7/7/2007 16:46
Firefighters move child passengers to safety after a bus was caught in a
raging flood yesterday in Guang'an, Sichuan Province.
Eighty-eight people
have been killed and 23 are missing as a result of heavy rain which began
lashing Sichuan and five other provinces on June 28, a senior spokesman with the
country's Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday.
Continuous rain and
intermittent hail have triggered floods and landslides in southwest Sichuan,
central Hubei and Henan, northwest Shaanxi and east Anhui and Jiangsu
provinces.
About 14.2 million people had been affected and 346.500
relocated by yesterday afternoon. About 32,300 houses collapsed and another
176,200 were damaged, according to the spokesman.
A total of 665,200
hectares of farmland have been hit, with agricultural losses estimated at 1.56
billion yuan (US$205 million). Total direct economic losses could reach 2.56
billion yuan.
Heavy rain is continuing in the six flood-stricken
provinces except the northern part of Hubei, the spokesman
said.
Xinhua
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