Flooding triggered by torrential rains killed at least 44 people and forced the evacuation of about 330,000 in a mountainous region of southern China, the government said yesterday.
The flooding in the Guangxi region also left another 23 people missing and wrecked more than 20,000 houses, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing disaster officials.
The area has been pounded by heavy rain since Saturday, causing swollen rivers to overflow their banks, Xinhua said.
Some 333,000 people have been evacuated from flood-prone areas to higher ground, the agency said.
The Wuzhou River was 8.5m above its danger level at midday yesterday, Xinhua said.
As the waters rose, the city of Wuzhou evacuated 20,000 of its residents, China Central Television (CCTV) reported, as it showed images of police helping elderly residents.
Along the river, thousands were working to fortify its banks and dams by piling up bags filled with earth, CCTV said.
Notices on the mass evacuation were posted on walls in the area, warning sirens blared in the dark of night and Wuzhou residents began to load up cars, trucks and carts with valuables and flee the area for higher ground.
"In the face of these floods, the attitude of the government is to make sure that no one is killed," Ren Kuikang, chief of the Wuzhou flood control and drought relief office, told state television.
With much of southern China now under threat, Premier Wen Jiabao (
Earlier this month, a flash flood swept through a low-lying primary school in Heilongjiang Province, killing 117 people, 105 of them children.
Flooding in Guangxi had killed 24 people and left 23 missing, Xinhua news agency said, citing provincial flood control officials.
More than 330,000 people had been evacuated to higher ground in the region, where the flooding has caused 1.67 billion yuan (US$201 million) in economic losses, damaged 328,000 hectares of crops and toppled more than 20,000 houses, it said.
Flooding damaged another 50,000 houses regionwide.
Authorities had expected the Xijiang, which has risen at a rate of 10cm per hour, to peak on yesterday night at a hydrographic station in Wuzhou.
Heavy rains have killed nine people since Saturday in Guangdong, where a landslide disrupted traffic on a rail line linking China with Hong Kong, Xinhua said.
Rainstorms in Guangdong caused cave-ins on part of the Beijing-Kowloon railway line, forcing dozens of trains to either delay or turn back while repairs were made, it said.
Water levels on two other rivers in Guangxi -- the Qianjiang and Xunjiang -- were above warning levels and the province had suffered nearly US$45 million in economic losses as of Monday due to the recent deluges, Xinhua said, citing local flood control headquarters.
In Fujian Province, floods and landslides had killed 12 and left five missing, it said. In Shunchang County alone in northern Fujian, dozens of landslides had buried nine people, killing five. Three were missing.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
GREATER REACH? Auto parts and wood products would face tariffs of up to 15%, matching those targeting the EU, Japan and South Korea, Vice Premier said The US has announced that preferential tariff treatment for Taiwan’s non-semiconductor Section 232 goods would take effect retroactively from May 1, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The US government yesterday posted a notice on the Federal Register’s public inspection Web site previewing tariff concessions for Taiwan under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Taiwan-US investment after two months of negotiations. The MOU signed on Jan. 15 stipulated three major preferential tariff arrangements: a 15 percent “reciprocal” tariff rate for Taiwan without stacking most-favored nation (MFN) rates; preferential Section 232 treatment for semiconductors and related products; and preferential Section 232 treatment for non-semiconductor
RSS