Storms, drought take their toll

The Ministry of Civil Affairs engaged a level-4 emergency response mechanism yesterday afternoon to deal with the damage inflicted by the heavy rains that have doused East China's Jiangxi Province.

So far 32 people have died as a result of the rains in Jiangxi.

Rainstorms killed 48 people and 12 more were missing yesterday in Jiangxi, Hubei, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guizhou provinces and Shanghai Municipality, the ministry said.

Lightening strikes were the leading cause of death, killing 37 people. Seven died in flashfloods, and collapsing houses killed four.

Level-4 is the minimum threshold for an emergency response by the ministry. It is triggered when between 30 and 50 people die in a disaster. The response typically involves the release of funds and the dispatch of a ministry work team to help coordinate disaster-relief work.

The disaster has so far affected 3.6 million people, and 73,000 people have been evacuated.

It has also resulted in economic losses of 1.06 billion yuan ($138 million).

Clashing cold and warm fronts are to blame for the violent showers that fell on the eastern part of Southwest China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River between June 22 and 25.

Water shortage in Jilin

Meanwhile, in Northeast China's Jilin Province, the severest drought in the region's history has resulted in a water shortage that is threatening 288,700 people and 181,300 livestock.

Recent rainfalls have amounted to only 10 percent of what they were last year.

As the hot and dry weather is expected to continue, the drought is not likely to ease up and could actually get worse, weather authorities said.

Some 1.3 million hectares of farmland have been affected by the drought, while 36,000 hectares are almost entirely dried out, according to Jilin provincial disaster-relief authorities.

Nineteen small and medium-sized reservoirs have dried up, and 12 cities have been hit by water shortages.

The soil is cracking because of the drought, and many farmers have begun to worry about the autumn harvest.

Source: China Daily