Severe Storms and Flash floods bring more danger to quake-hit southern China
Pastor Dale Morgan
Severe Storms and Flash floods bring more danger to quake-hit southern
China*
* Peter Walker and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday May 28 2008
Torrential rain has washed away hundreds of houses, killing at least 50
people in southern China, mainly in provinces adjoining quake-hit Sichuan.
The province of Guizhou, to the south of Sichuan, has been hit hardest;
flash floods have killed 36 people since Sunday and 14 people are
missing, the state-run Xinhua news agency said today.
Seven people died in Hunan and three in Hubei, which also adjoin
Sichuan, while four were killed in Guangxi, a province further to the south.
According to Xinhua, more than 500,000 people around Guizhou have been
affected, with almost 7,000 houses damaged, including hundreds buried by
landslides.
Government relief agencies, already struggling with the aftermath of the
Sichuan earthquake on May 12, have sent tents, blankets and clothes to
those left homeless.
More landslides are feared because downpours are forecast to continue
for much of the week. More than 10cm (3.9in) of rain fell last night in
parts of Guangxi, according to Xinhua.
The flash flooding and landslides come as authorities in Sichuan
struggle to release water from a series of vast, swelling lakes
resulting from landslides after the earthquake dammed rivers.
In a precautionary measure, more than 150,000 people living below the
vast Tangjiashan "quake lake" near the devastated town of Beichuan have
been evacuated. Up to 1.3 million people could be moved if the lake
barrier collapses entirely, the state-run China Daily newspaper said today.
Troops have used helicopters to move heavy mechanical diggers to the
edge of the lake to create drainage channels. They plan to use
explosives to provide more escape routes for the water.
The region is being regularly shaken by heavy aftershocks, which are
hampering aid efforts and destroying homes damaged by the first quake.
Tremors yesterday caused 420,000 homes to collapse, according to officials.
Beijing has asked its ong-time regional rival Japan to send military
assistance to help cope with the vast reconstruction work needed in Sichuan.
Japan has already sent civilian relief teams but, if military aid
arrives, it will be the first time Japan's military has been deployed in
China since Tokyo's brutal occupation of parts of the country from 1931
to 1945.
The legacy of the occupation, notably the Chinese belief that Japan's
government and people have yet to fully acknowledge their wartime deeds,
proves a regular irritant in relationships between the nations, although
ties have warmed recently.