China begins floods clean-up

Rain-soaked residents of south-western China began digging out today after floods and landslides that killed at least 161 people, while authorities warned of further rains over parts of the disaster area.

Days-long showers had stopped over Sichuan province’s hard-hit Dazhou area, where the death toll stood at 89, with 41 missing and about 10,000 people sick and injured, said He Rongjun, a spokesman for the provincial disaster relief office.

In sprawling Chongqing municipality just east of Sichuan, 72 people were dead and 23 missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

However, He said meteorologists have warned at least three major storms will strike in coming weeks, and authorities were alert for further damage.

“Even though the rain has stopped, we will not be moving any rescue workers from the front line so soon,” He said by telephone from Sichuan’s capital, Chengdu.

Authorities put the enormous Three Gorges hydroelectric project on alert as flood crests passed through the swollen Yangtze River. Navigation through the dam’s locks was suspended, although Xinhua said traffic would be restored on Thursday.

Summer rains wreak havoc across the flood-prone Yangtze practically every year, with torrents rushing down denuded slopes to menace low lying plains in central China.

Residents of Chongqing’s mountainous Kaixian county were being allowed back to homes devastated by the floods and mudslides, Xinhua said. The area accounted for 54 of Chongqing’s deaths.

More than 200 medical workers were disinfecting the area and 18 disease monitoring stations were being set up to guard against outbreaks, Xinhua said. Electricity was expected to be restored to the entire county today.

China Central Television showed streets where waters had receded strewn with rubbish, furniture and household items. Where waters were still high, soldiers used boats to evacuate people from flooded homes, while elderly residents were floated away from their homes on makeshift rafts and infants pushed through the mire in bright red washbasins.

More than 5,000 soldiers were taking part in the rescue efforts, and one 19-year-old recruit drowned while helping with evacuations, Xinhua said.

In Sichuan, emergency goods valued at over 500,000 yuan (61,000 US dollars, 50,000 euros) were sent to the disaster area yesterday, including tents, instant noodles, drinking water and other digging equipment, according to He.

Flooding losses were initially estimated at 3.9 billion yuan (470 million US dollars, 385 million euros), Xinhua said, with the greatest damage caused by landslides and flash floods sweeping through mountain valleys.

Separately, heavy rains yesterday caused a mudslide that killed one person and left five missing in Lijiang, a town in Yunnan province south of Sichuan.

The halt to navigation on the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric project, was the first since the dam was reopened to river traffic in June 2003, the reports said.

The project, which required 1.3 million people to relocate, has been touted by authorities as a means of stemming flooding along the Yangtze.