Violent weather kills dozens

Villagers injured by hail and torrential rain are treated in a makeshift medical facility in Minxian county, Gansu province, on Sunday. Severe storms claimed the lives of at least 49 people, and 23 others have been reported missing. FANG YI / FOR CHINA DAILY

At least 49 people were killed and 23 others were missing as of Saturday after hail and torrential rain hit Northwest China's Gansu province on Thursday.

The storms affected 412,200 people in Minxian, Zhangxian and Weiyuan counties and had forced nearly 150,000 people to evacuate as of Saturday, China Central Television reported on Sunday.

The death toll in Minxian, the hardest-hit, reached 42, with 17 people missing and 87 hospitalized as of Saturday, Xinhua News Agency reported. Direct economic losses are estimated to surpass 1.6 billion yuan ($254 million), it reported.

Storms and floods damaged tens of thousands of homes, caused temporary blackouts to 20,000 households, destroyed roads and bridges and disrupted telecommunications service in six towns in the county, the local civil affairs bureau said.

Zhao Qingyun, chief forecaster at the Lanzhou Meteorological Center, said the violent weather lasted about three hours on Thursday evening, up to 42 millimeters of rain fell per hour in the hardest-hit Mazichuan town in Minxian. That volume of rain is rarely experienced in Gansu.

The extreme weather was mainly caused by a strong cold front, according to the provincial meteorological bureau.

No rain is predicted for the coming week in the region, the National Meteorological Center said on Sunday.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Disaster Reduction Committee sent expert teams to help the local authorities in rescue operations on Friday.

The Ministry of Finance allocated 20 million yuan to Gansu for flood-control costs.

A large amount of daily necessities valued at 1.8 million yuan have been sent to Minxian, Xu Guangyao, director of the Minxian civil affairs bureau, said at a news conference on Saturday. According to the bureau, 5,000 tents, 20,000 quilts, 10,000 beds, 5,000 tons of rice, drinking water and other supplies were needed in Minxian.

While relocation work carried on in the disaster-hit area, the Gansu civil affairs bureau said on Saturday that the families of those killed will each get 8,000 yuan as compensation.

The injured will get free medical treatment, the bureau said.

The provincial government will also offer people affected by the storms a subsidy of 10 yuan per day for the first 15 days after the disaster.

Subsidies will continue for another three months for those without an income or relatives.

Relocated people are encouraged to seek shelter with relatives or friends. Those who have nowhere to go can live in emergency tents.

Minxian is a mountainous county in the city of Dingxi with a population of 450,000.

It is 150 kilometers from Zhouqu county, where a rain-triggered mudslide killed more than 1,500 people in August 2010.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, natural disasters claimed 69 lives with four people missing across China in April, with direct economic losses reaching at least 15 billion yuan.