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Thunderstorms spell disaster for Yantai
By Ju Chuanjiang and Wang Xiantao (China Daily Shandong Bureau)
Updated: 2009-07-20 14:28

Yantai: The thunderstorms that struck Yantai from July 17 to 18 in nine county-level regions have affected up to 665,000 people, 11,000 of whom were placed in emergency, according to the Yantai municipal civil affairs bureau.

Shandong's civil affairs bureau has taken a fourth grade emergency response measure to deal with the disaster and a work group has been dispatched to assess the situation and direct relief work.

The city's rainfall averaged 64.9 mm with Penglai and Changdao's reaching 274.8 and 257.2 mm respectively. The downpour caused sudden flooding, which wreaked havoc on crops, houses and bridges within the low-lying areas, bringing heavy economic losses.

Regions including Penglai, Longkou, Changdao, Laizhou, Laiyang, Laishan, Zhaoyuan, Fushan and Qixia have suffered from disasters in varying degrees, with Penglai and Longku hit hardest. Close to 60,000 hectares of crops have been affected and more than one hundred thousand homes flooded, resulting in 37,500 damaged and 1,500 collapsed houses. The torrents have caused approximately 1.3 billion yuan ($190 million) in direct economic losses, including 600 million yuan ($88 million) in agriculture.

The affected regions' governments and related departments have launched emergency plans for relief after the disaster hit, with staff rushing to affected sites to immediately investigate the situation and transfer afflicted people to safe zones.

According to statistics from Shandong's hydrology and water resources reconnaissance office, provincial rainfall has averaged 258 mm during this year's flood season, an increase of 37 percent above that of the corresponding period of past years.