BEIJING, June 17 (Bloomberg): China asked local authorities to closely watch for flood threats with heavy rains expected across the country in coming days.
The country faces a "complex and severe” situation in flood-prevention efforts, the Ministry of Emergency Management said in a post on official WeChat account.
Local governments were asked to be on alert for flood threats in places including cities, construction sites and tourist spots, according to the post.
Heavy downpours are expected from central China’s Henan province to Guangdong in the south next week, the country’s meteorological agency warned.
Two weeks ago, at least 17 people were killed and four are missing after flooding hit the central Chinese province of Hunan and a landslide buried parts of several villages in the southern Guangxi region, state media reported.
Storms have pummeled Hunan since the beginning of the month, with some monitoring stations reporting historic levels of rainfall, the Xinhua News Agency had said.
As of June 9, 10 people were reported dead and three missing in the floods that have affected around 1.8 million people in the largely rural, mountainous province, Xinhua said. It said 286,000 people have been evacuated to safety and more than 2,700 houses have been damaged or collapsed entirely.
In Guangxi, rescue crews were still looking for survivors in several villages in the area of Beiliu city, where days of rain left hillsides waterlogged and prone to slippages, Xinhua said. Seven people were confirmed dead in the landslides, one was missing and at least one person was pulled out alive. - Bloomberg
