Flooding claims dozens of lives in southern China
16/06/2008
With the region still reeling from last month's devastating earthquake, southern China has been hit by yet another natural disaster.
Following heavy rain over the weekend, floodwaters have engulfed nine provinces - including the quake-hit area of Sichuan - causing 57 deaths and leaving at least eight other people missing.
State media has said some 1.3 million people have now fled their homes, with further downpours expected to pummel Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces over the coming days.
In the worst-affected coastal area of Guangdong, water levels on the swollen Wujiang River have already reached nearly 79 feet - dramatically exceeding the "dangerous level" of 20 feet.
Video footage from the scene showed cars skidding perilously along a flooded highway as resident scrambled to evacuate.
The China Daily newspaper is reporting that streets and houses have been entirely submerged along another of Guangdong's major rivers, the Xijiang. It has labelled the flooding the worst to hit the Pearl River Delta in half a century.
"A major flood is feared if rain continues," Huang Boqing, deputy director of the Guangdong flood control and drought relief headquarters, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
In the course of the past few days alone the floods have resulted in some $1.5 billion (£766 million) of economic losses, as well as leaving 45,000 homes destroyed and a further 140,000 damaged.
The events come just weeks after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, killing nearly 70,000 people.
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