55 dead, 378,000 evacuated in China floods

At least 55 people have been killed and 12 are missing amid the worst flooding in eastern China in three decades, the government said today.

More rain was forecast, with a trough of low pressure bringing more unsettled weather to coastal areas.

At least 378,000 people have already been evacuated from the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Guizhou due to floods prompted by an unusually heavy seasonal monsoon, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

Fujian has recorded 28 flood deaths since the end of May, with the other two provinces reporting 11 each. Other provinces further inland and to the north have also reported scattered deaths and flood damage.

Direct economic losses so far are estimated at 2.19 billion yuan (€214m) in Fujian alone, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The rains have caused the biggest flood in three decades along Fujian’s Min river, a major conduit for trade and transport in eastern China, according to the Web sites of the provincial weather and water resources bureaus.

Some areas of the province had recorded their heaviest rainfalls in half a century, the water resources bureau said.

China suffers hundreds of deaths every year in floods set off during the June-to-August rainy season, although the season’s first storm arrived unusually early this year.

Rivers overflow and water rushes down mountains stripped of trees by decades of farming and logging, often causing deadly landslides.