68 dead, 25 missing in Hubei floods

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-16 08:52

WUHAN -- The rainstorm and floods have killed 68 people and 25 others were missing in central China's Hubei Province since the flood season began in June, according to local government.

Another 402,200 people have been evacuated from affected areas, said Liu Hui, deputy head of the disaster relief office under the provincial civil affairs department at a press conference on Sunday afternoon.

Hubei, which is also called "the province of thousands of lakes", has experienced six major rainstorms since June, which have triggered floods in more than 2,000 rivers, mountain torrents and landslides, causing an economic loss of more than 3,800 million yuan, said Liu.

The central and local governments had allocated more than 90.5 million yuan of relief fund to the affected areas and all the evacuated people have been well accommodated, said Liu.

"The evacuated residents have been arranged to live in tents, government buildings, schools or at their relatives and local governments have sent medical teams to treat the injured," said Liu.

The official with the provincial flood control office warned local government of preparing for new floods as heavy rainstorms were said to hit Hubei from Tuesday to Friday.

"Although the large rivers, like the Yangtze and the Hanjiang Rivers, remain calm so far, the water level of 2,000 rivers of smaller size have risen dramatically, posing a serious threat to the flood control in the counties where the dams are poorly maintained," said Guo Zhigao, deputy director of the provincial flood control office.

In addition, most of the reservoirs in Hubei have used out its capacity and some were even reported with leakage and overflow, according to Guo.

More than 90,000 people have been patrolling on the dams and around the reservoir and residents nearby have been asked to evacuated to safe places. (One U.S. dollar equals 7.6 yuan)



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