Floods blocked roads in southern China, leaving some 300 teenagers stranded at a school with limited supplies of food and water, an official said yesterday, after days of heavy rain killed at least 16 people.
More than 320,000 people have fled their homes in southern and central China after heavy rains toppled houses, flooded roads and damaged a dam, news reports said.
Flood waters blocked the entrances to the Hemu Town Middle School in the Guangxi region and rendered nearby roads impassable, said an official in Rongshui County, where the school is situated. She would only give her surname, Lu.
CCTV said floodwaters along a major commercial thoroughfare elsewhere in Rongshui were more than 2.5m deep. The report said it was the highest water level the county has seen in a decade.
Flood control officials used boats to deliver food, mineral water and other supplies to the school on Saturday, including pumps to lower the water level, Lu said.
She said she did not know how long the children, aged from 13 to 15 years, had been stuck in the building.
Heavy rains have battered the region since Wednesday. By Friday, 80 percent of the county was inundated, causing the Rongjiang River to overflow its banks and forcing the relocation of more than 70,000 people, Lu said.
CCTV showed flooded Rongshui streets, where the signboards of restaurants and shops were all that could be seen above the water. Mattresses, household items and other debris drifted in the water.
The county government estimated the damage at 210 million yuan (US$31 million), Xinhua news agency reported.
The rain also destroyed a 13m section of a dike near the base of the Kama Reservoir in Guangxi, Xinhua said.
About 15,000 people who lived downstream from the dam were moved to safety and were now living in more than 1,000 tents, the national flood control office said in a statement on Saturday.
In the central province of Hunan, floods have killed eight people and forced 140,000 to relocate. Five people have died in southeastern Fujian Province, two others were missing, and 22,000 people have been evacuated, Xinhua said on Saturday.
Another three people died and four were missing in Jiangxi Province and in the Guangxi region another 80,000 people were forced from their homes.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source