Flooding in China forces 94,000 people to flee

Flooding killed four people and forced the evacuation of 94,000 in the north China port city of Dandong after heavy rains caused the Yalu river to breach its banks, state media said on Sunday. Rain continued to fall on Sunday in the region, which  orders North Korea, but the official Xinhua News Agency reported that water levels along the Yalu and its tributaries dropped below flood warning levels. Xinhua said four people died, including a couple in their 70s and a mother and son, after their homes were swept away by flash floods.

An official at Flood Control Headquarters in Dandong said three people were  missing. Transport links to some villages in remote mountainous areas have been cut, with helicopters brought in to airlift people to safety. On Saturday, floodwaters punctured a dike between the river and an economic development zone in Dandong, inundating many neighbourhoods.

The river's water level had fallen since then but remained dangerously high, Xinhua said, without giving specific measurements. Local television showed troops drafted in to help the townspeople. River levels have fallen since Saturday but remained dangerously high, according to the Xinhua news agency. Floods also cut off railway transportation on Saturday, leaving over 3,000 passengers stranded in Dandong Railway Station.  North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said torrential rain and water from the overflowing Yalu (known in Korea as the Amnok) swamped houses, public buildings and farmland in more than five villages near Sinuiju, the city opposite Dandong.

The report described Sinuiju and the surrounding area as "severely affected" by the flooding and said officials, troops and ordinary civilians were involved in rescue work. Much of North Korea's trade with the world passes through the city.

It said at least 5,150 people had been moved out and residents were clambering on rooftops or taking shelter on hilltops.  For China, the Dandong flooding is the latest disaster in the country's worst flood season for over a decade.  Landslides caused by heavy rains have smothered communities in western China and accounted for most of the more than 2,500 people killed. Floods caused by torrential rains have also slashed the southern Sichuan province, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.  On Saturday in the province's Ganluo county, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains paralyzed road traffic.  2500 residents have been evacuated to safety by noon on Sunday, according to state media.  Also on Saturday, almost all the major highways in Sichuan's western city of Ya An were damaged by floods or landslide in the new round of downpours, CCTV said. 

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/flooding-in-china-forces-94-000-people-to-flee-46478?cp

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/flooding-in-china-forces-94-000-people-to-flee-46478?cp

China floods, landslides leave 1,148 missing

More than 6,000 troops sifted through mud-drenched villages and towns Monday in a desperate search for survivors of a series of flash floods and landslides in northwestern China. At least 337 people were killed after the disaster struck China's Gansu province on Sunday, covering entire villages in water, mud and rocks. On Monday night the government said 1,148 were missing, down from a previous estimate of 1,300. About 45,000 were evacuated.

Soldiers worked through the night heaving mud with bare hands and shovels, pulling mud-soaked corpses out of the rubble. Debris also blocked the transport of much-needed bulldozers and backhoes from roads into the mountainous county seat of Zhouqu, which remained largely submerged following Sunday's disaster.

Work was underway to restore power, water and communications in affected areas in the southern part of the province, and it was not known how many of the missing were in danger or simply out of contact.

Hoping to prevent further disasters, demolition experts set off three sets of charges to clear debris blocking the Bailong River upstream from the ravaged Zhouqu. The blockage had formed a three-kilometre-long artificial lake on the river that overflowed in the pre-dawn hours, sending deadly torrents crashing down onto the town. Houses were ripped from their foundations, apartment buildings shattered, and streets covered with a layer of mud and water more than a metre deep.

Premier Wen Jiabao flew to the area on Sunday to oversee relief efforts and offer hope to those still trapped. At one point, almost slipping in the brown muck surrounding him, Wen shouted encouragement to an elderly man trapped inside a collapsed house. "Hang on, dear fellow! We're trying to save you!'" Wen was seen shouting, in Chinese, on state broadcaster CCTV.

Wen visited hard-hit areas including the Sanyan Valley, where a village of 300 households was buried in mudslides, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said more than 680 villagers have been rescued, but gave no word on numbers believed to still be trapped. Flooding in China has killed more than 1,100 people this year and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage across 28 provinces and regions. There is more heavy rain forecast for the region over the next three days, the China Meteorological Administration said. On Monday evening, clouds were building ominously over the mountains where the mud first started flowing.