|
Death toll from China storms rises to at least 39
2007-08-23
The death toll from Typhoon Sepat which has swept central and southeastern China has edged up to 39 and eight other people are still missing, the government said Thursday. Although Sepat has been downgraded to a tropical depression, it has wreaked havoc inland, affecting more than eight million people in five provinces, the civil affairs ministry said on its website. A total of 1.76 million people have been evacuated from their homes in the provinces, where the storms and rains have destroyed crops on 339,000 hectares of farmland, toppled 23,000 houses and caused direct economic losses of about 6.7 billion yuan (883 million dollars). In the central province of Hunan alone, two people were killed after days of torrential rain sent rivers rising to dangerous levels, the Xinhua news agency reported. More than 588,000 people have been evacuated there. Swathes of China have been plagued by near-constant torrential downpours since the summer rainy season began. Rains brought by tropical storm Pabuk in southern Guangdong province earlier this month affected more than one million people and destroyed thousands of houses, state media reports said. The latest government figures show that extreme weather killed 712 people and left 163 missing across China in July alone.
| 
