China rainstorm death toll reaches 55

18 May Gulf Times

The rainstorms that battered southern China this week have killed 55 people and left 14 others missing.

The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs website says at least nine provinces have had storms and some flooding and landslides since Tuesday.

It says Guangdong province has been hit the hardest, with 36 deaths and 10 missing people, followed by Jiangxi province, where six people are reported dead and four more missing.

Floods and landslides forced the evacuation of tens of thousands, after rainstorms swept across southern China.

At least 19 died and 11 were missing in the worst-hit province of Guangdong after torrential rain buffeted most of southern China from Tuesday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported. The storms, floods and landslides affected some 650,000 people in Guangdong, forcing the evacuation of at least 36,000, provincial officials said.

Water more than one metre deep flooded the streets of several southern cities, according to photographs on the China Central Television website and in other state media. Rescuers in the south-western province of Guizhou were searching for two people missing and one trapped under rubble after a landslide engulfed three homes in a village in Nayong county.

The south-eastern coastal city of Xiamen recorded 141 millimetres of rain in four hours early Thursday, the heaviest rainfall for about 60 years.

The worst flooding for about 100 years was reported along a tributary of Guangdong’s Beijiang river.

The Qujiang district of Guangdong’s Shaoguan city recorded 339.8 millimetres of rain from Tuesday. At least 10 people died and seven were missing in Shaoguan, local media said.

Floods and landslides also blocked roads and cut off electricity to several villages, the reports said.

The rainstorms were forecast to weaken yesterday before battering many parts of Guangdong again today, provincial meteorologists said.