Christian Message Boards: "China Fears Flood Tolls to Top 500"

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Posted by Kindgo (Member # 2) on :

(MSNBC)
China fears flood tolls to top 500

200 bodies recovered, another 300 missing and feared dead
Two farmers carry a log to rebuild their houses demolished by the torrential rains in Suining County, a flood-stricken area in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday.

BEIJING, June 18 — China, bracing for more devastating floods, fears the death toll from some of its worst deluges in years has already risen to more than 500 people, official newspapers said on Tuesday.

OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed more than 200 people have been killed so far and the China Daily quoted the top official in the worst hit province, Shaanxi, as saying there was little hope for hundreds more who were missing.
“Some 300 people are still missing and are not expected to be found alive,” Jia Zhibang, the acting governor of the northwestern province, told the newspaper.
The first of a wave of floods that plague China every summer has struck huge swathes of the country from north to south, raising fears of a repeat of 1998 when the worst flooding in half a century killed more than 4,000 people.
Shaanxi has so far confirmed 152 deaths during floods that wrecked water supplies, highways and homes and is expecting more heavy rain and potential flooding this week, the paper said.
Southern China, where landslides and mudslides have killed scores of people and hundreds of thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes, was also expecting heavy rain in coming days, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The floods have ravaged the central province of Hunan and had destroyed hundreds of homes in the past few days, Xinhua said.
Floods this year appeared abnormal in that they had hit inland provinces like Shaanxi, Guizhou and Sichuan earlier than usual, weather expert Zhang Yan said.
“Shaanxi and Sichuan normally have rain and flooding in July and August. It is happening one month earlier this year,” he said.
“Some oceanographers attribute this year’s weather to El Nino, but I personally think it’s something related to global warming,” Zhang said.

China has allocated $16.6 billion for flood control since the tragic floods in 1998, banned tree felling and urged farmers to plant trees to reduce the risk of serious flooding.

HIGH ALERT
State television showed soldiers and workers shifting rocks and sandbags to reinforce the banks of the Yellow River —dubbed “China’s Sorrow” for disastrous floods over the centuries — and smaller rivers in several provinces, including Shaanxi and Gansu in the west.
State media have said the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, China’s deadliest, have not yet spilled their banks.
Around 118 small and medium-sized reservoirs were being monitored in Shaanxi and some 45,000 people had been mobilized to reinforce key points of rivers, China Central Television reported.
Shaanxi officials had been on high alert since light rain began falling on Monday, a flood control official said.
“If we receive a forecast of any disastrous weather, we will promptly mobilize relevant personnel to inspect the dams and dykes for weak and dangerous points,” he said.
Shaanxi had been unable to prevent extensive damage caused by the recent flooding due to a lack of manpower despite preparations that began at the end of May, he said.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/765710.asp