25 dead after heavy rains in central China; Yangtze River dangerously high*

AP - Tuesday, July 3

BEIJING - Floods and landslides killed 25 people in a central China
province, with the rain-swollen Yangtze River that cuts through the
province at dangerously high levels, an official and a government Web
site said Tuesday.

The flooding in Hubei province also left eight people missing, destroyed
53,400 homes and caused almost 800 million yuan (about US$100 million;
74 million) in losses, said Gao Jianzhou, vice director of the office
of the Hubei provincial Department of Civil Affairs.

The heavy rain that triggered the floods started Thursday and had
stopped by Tuesday.

But the Yangtze, which runs through Hubei, and other major rivers are at
dangerously high levels, and more rainfall could lead to flooding,
according to the Web site of the national Office of the State Flood
Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The Three Gorges dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, blocks
the Yangtze in Hubei and was designed to control flooding.

However, Huangang a major city in Hubei along the Yangtze, was affected
by flooding, according to the Department of Civil Affairs Web site.

Gao denied the dam was at fault. "The Three Gorges has nothing to do
with the flood. The flood was caused by the rainstorm," he said.

Deadly flooding is a perennial problem in China, with floods this year
killing 233 people, destroying 118,500 homes and affecting over 42
million people, according to the national flood control office.

Millions of people in central and southern China live on flood-prone
reclaimed farmland in the flood plains of rivers.

Flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people last year, according to the
China Meteorological Administration. That was the second-deadliest year
on record after 1998, when summer flooding claimed 4,150 lives.

Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes but many fatalities occur in
farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers, and in
mountain towns that are hit by flash floods.

Other major rivers running dangerously high include parts of the Pearl
in the south, the Minjiang in the east, and the Nenjiang in the north of
the country, according to the national flood control office.