TAIYUAN, CHINA Oct 12 (Asia Free Press): At least 15 people died, and three others were missing when a heavy flood hit the north China Shanxi region last week, state-run media said on Tuesday.
China’s Shanxi Provincial government said the province experienced the deadliest autumn flood on record earlier this month. Continuous rainfall has affected nearly 1.76 million residents in 76 county-level regions across the province, and 120,100 people have been relocated, Xinhua news agency reported.
“About 238,460 hectares of crops have been damaged, 37,700 houses collapsed or seriously damaged, causing direct economic losses of 5.03 billion yuan (about 780 million U.S. dollars).” the agency quoted an officials as saying.
The flooding hit the coal-rich landlocked region during a nationwide energy crunch, and after record, floods killed more than 300 people in central Henan province in July.
At least 60 coal mines in the province — one of China’s top coal-producing regions — had temporarily closed due to the floods, but now all but four have returned to regular operation, local emergency management official Wang Qirui said.
Wang said around 19,000 buildings were destroyed by the extreme weather, with 18,000 others “seriously damaged.”
This year in summer, several regions across China had been hit by unprecedented flooding that caused evacuation of thousand people in the Hubei and Sichuan provinces including killing of over 300 people.
