China issued emergency flood warnings for central and eastern parts of the nation Tuesday, after torrential downpours led to the deaths of at least 127 in the past eight days. Water levels on the Huaihe river in three provinces had surpassed warning levels and were rising, affecting 14.7 million residents and leading to the collapse of 19,000 homes, the state flood headquarters said on its website.
Vice Premier Hui Liangyu issued an emergency flood warning calling for workers in the three provinces to reinforce dykes and help nearly 90,000 people to evacuate, it said.
No details were given on the number of missing, but earlier press reports said at least 26 people were unaccounted for in flooding nationwide.
Elsewhere, 39 people have been killed and 18 are missing in floods and landslides that have slammed southwest China's Sichuan province since the beginning of the month, the headquarters said.
At least 200,000 people have been evacuated in the Sichuan region, where four reservoirs have collapsed, bringing more havoc to the local population and to farmlands, it said.
Meanwhile tropical storm Man-yi, which has formed in the western Pacific and could hit the eastern seaboard soon, threatens to add to the misery, the China Daily said.
The situation could worsen, with expected thunderstorms and strong winds raising the risk of mountain torrents, landslides and mudflows, China's meteorologists reported.
According to the headquarters, 360 people have lost their lives in China due to flooding and landslides so far this year, with more than 217,000 homes destroyed or collapsed.
More than 66 million people have been affected by the adverse weather, which has damaged millions of hectares (acres) and caused direct economic losses of 24 billion yuan (3.16 billion dollars), it said.
In Shaanxi province to the north, heavy rains over the weekend killed five people and have caused havoc with transport, power and water supplies and telecommunications services, and led to cracks forming in 16 dams.
Source: Agence France-Presse
