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Death toll from torrential rains in China expected to rise above 530
Beijing (AFP) Jul 23, 2006 The death toll from Tropical Storm Bilis was expected to rise from the 530 confirmed fatalities, as relief and rescue work was extended throughout central and southern China, officials said Sunday. Relief operations continued in the mountainous areas of central Hunan province where flash floods and landslides buried villages and roads after Bilis dumped torrents of rain on the region over the last week, officials contacted by phone told AFP. "Zixing city was the worst area hit," a spokesman at the Zixing city media relations office told AFP, while refusing to identify himself. "We have not seen anything like this in this region in 500 years, the volume of rain was huge and it triggered landslides in a lot of areas." More than 610 millimeters (24 inches) of rain was dumped on up to 10 villages in the Zixing region, toppling trees, triggering landslides and inundating roads, he said. "A lot of trees in the mountainous areas were washed down, including some trees that were several hundred years old," the spokesman said. He denied that local governments were trying to cover up the fatalities due to lax preparations and reports that illegal tree cutting in the region had resulted in the landslides. "As the local communications were cut off, we had no contact with these towns and villages," he said. "Government departments at all levels have been focusing on rescue operations and have been dispatched to the worst hit areas to help the victims. We have to get people to shelters." At least 346 people were reported dead and 89 missing from the rains in Hunan province, including 197 fatalities and 66 missing in the Zixing area, the government reported late Friday night. "We are still calculating the casualties, we expect a new report on the death toll and economic losses will be issued on Monday," a spokesman surnamed Peng from the Hunan provincial government, China's hardest hit area, told AFP. Tropical Storm Bilis, which also claimed lives in the Philippines and Taiwan, has left a path of death and destruction since making landfall in China a week ago. In the southern province of Guangdong, neighboring Hunan, 106 people were confirmed dead and 77 were missing from Bilis, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a provincial government report issued late Saturday. More than 7.4 million people were affected by the disaster in 68 counties and over 670 townships in the province. Economic losses were estimated at 13.5 billion yuan (1.68 billion dollars), the report said. At least 35 people were reported dead in the southern region of Guangxi, while 43 were killed in southeastern Fujian province. Related Links
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