Seven people have been reported missing in the last three days
following heavy rainstorms in southwest China's Sichuan Province, the local government
confirmed Sunday.
Five people went missing and at least 500 were evacuated from
areas hit by mountain torrents and mud-rock flows Saturday in
Wenchuan County of the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba,
the provincial office for disaster relief said. Two others were
reported missing in Yingjing County of Ya'an, they reported.
The atrocious weather also damaged two power stations and cut
off communications in Wenchuan.
The heaviest rainfall in the Sichuan Basin this year began
Friday night and hit eight cities including the provincial capital
Chengdu, Deyang, Mianyang, Leshan and Yibin, the provincial
meteorological bureau said.
Jiangyou city in Mianyang was the worst hit with 163 millimeters
of rainfall by Sunday morning and the volume of rain had topped 100
millimeters in five other counties, the bureau stated.?
The rain has cooled the sauna-like weather which has hung over
the southwestern province in the past few weeks and the maximum
daytime temperature dropped to 28 degrees Celsius Sunday.
The provincial disaster relief office has sent rescue teams to
the flood-hit areas.
Also on Sunday meteorologists said typhoon Kaemi, the fifth of
the year, was approaching Taiwan.
?
Kaemi was located at latitude 19.6 north and longitude 126.1 east
in seawaters 700 kilometers southeast of Taiwan's Hualien at 5 PM
Sunday. It’s moving towards the island at a speed of 15 to 20
kph.?
The typhoon is expected to land on northern Fujian or southern
Zhejiang on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. It’ll bring
rainstorms to south and east China's Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces.
Drawing on the lessons learned from Bilis local governments are
drafting plans to recall fishermen at sea, check and protect
reservoirs, monitor for potential floods and landslides and arrange
evacuation of people where required.?
(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2006)
