Floods ravage south China
Pastor Dale Morgan
*
Monday July 17, 2:26 PM Reuters*
Floods ravage south China*
BEIJING (Reuters) - Torrential rains killed at least 164 people across
south China over the weekend, flooding major cities, sweeping away
houses and cutting off a main rail link, state media reported on Monday.
The rains were triggered by Tropical Storm Bilis, which killed dozens in
the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China on Friday. Forecasters
had said the storm would weaken as it hit China, but instead it wrought
havoc across the country's south.
Downpours continued on Monday across much of southern China, where 12
million people in six provinces have been affected by floods and 138 are
still missing, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) said.
A section of the Beijing-Zhuhai highway that links the national capital
to the country's southern industrial hubs has been submerged by water as
deep as three metres (9 ft 10 in) in Hunan, CCTV said.
In far-southern Guangdong province, floods severed water supplies and
caused blackouts in Shaoguan, a city of half a million, the television said.
In the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, where Bilis made
landfall in China, floods swept away 19,000 homes and forced the
evacuation of 519,000 people, the Beijing News said.
CCTV showed pictures of residents wading in water up to their knees on
flooded streets in the provincial capital Fuzhou.
South China is plagued by rainstorms every summer, but this year's flood
season has been particularly deadly, already claiming hundreds of lives
before Bilis struck.
The Beijing-Guangzhou railway was cut near Shaoguan, disrupting cargo
and passenger services, and it was unclear when trains services could
resume, CCTV said.