Landslides and floods have killed more than 150 people across China in the past two months as rainstorms battered the region.
A search was still underway Monday (Aug. 5) for victims of floods and landslides in mountainous Tibetan areas of Sichuan province that killed nine people and left 18 others unaccounted for, state media said.
The disaster that struck on Saturday (3/8) morning destroyed houses and killed at least seven people in the village of Ridi, the state broadcaster said. CCTV in a report online. Two other people were killed, after a nearby bridge connecting two tunnels collapsed and four vehicles crashed.
China is now in the peak of flood season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, and Chinese policymakers have repeatedly warned that the government needs to step up disaster preparations as severe weather becomes more frequent.
According to CCTVan annual government report on climate, said that historical data last month showed the frequency of extreme rainfall and heat had increased in China.
Heat warnings were in place on Monday for parts of eastern China, with temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius in several cities, including Nanjing, and 37 degrees Celsius in coastal Shanghai.
There have been a series of deadly rainstorms since June. Days of heavy rain after Typhoon Gaemi, which weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall in China about 10 days ago, killed at least 48 people in Hunan province and left 35 others missing last week.
Authorities said Friday that the death toll from an earlier storm in July, which brought down a bridge in Shaanxi province in the middle of the night, had risen to 38, with 24 people still missing. At least 25 cars plunged into a fast-flowing river, sweeping some downstream.
In mid-June, at least 47 people were killed in floods and landslides following heavy rains in Guangzhou province. Six more died in neighboring Fujian province. Heavy rains have also claimed hundreds of lives elsewhere in Asia this summer, including massive landslides that killed more than 200 people in southern India last week.
The remnants of Typhoon Gaemi also drenched northeastern China and North Korea, swelling the Yalu River that divides the two regions and flooding cities and farmland. (th/ka)
