Floods triggered by heavy rains have killed 21 people and left 31 others missing in a county of Southwest China, the local government said on Tuesday.
As of 2 pm on Tuesday, the floods had forced at least 45,380 residents to evacuate Wangmo county, Guizhou Province, and 3,000 others remained stranded, the county government said in a press release on Tuesday.
“Telecommunication services and electricity in the county have been restored, and the water supply, which is still suspended in several villages and townships, is expected to be restored by the end of the day,” Ma Shiyong, spokesman with the media center of the local government, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Heavy downpours in Wangmo county that started on Sunday morning have triggered landsides, disrupting power and water supplies and telecommunication services in several towns, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The floods damaged over 3,000 hectares of farmland, washed away more than 500 vehicles, toppled 801 houses and destroyed roads and bridges, the report said.
To ensure that 902 students in the county could sit the national college entrance examination, the local student enrollment office set up 31 examination rooms in a high school located on higher terrain.
There were no cases reported of students unable to take the exam, according to China National Radio on Tuesday.
Although the heavy rains have alleviated the drought-hit regions in southern China, they have also resulted in floods in some provinces including Hunan, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.
Heavy rains in Jiangxi Province since Sunday have pushed local authorities to lift the level-4 drought emergency and make preparations for a possible flood situation.
About 248 townships in Hunan Province suffered heavy rains last weekend. Some 1.2 million people in Xiangxi, Loudi, Huaihua and Zhangjiajie were affected, causing 580 million yuan ($89.6 million) in direct economic losses, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The National Meteorological Center of the China Meteorological Administration also said that rains would continue in the drought-afflicted middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River next week, which may lead to flooding in the region.
Source: Global Times