Storms leave at least 39 dead in China
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Storms have killed at least 39 people in southwestern and central parts of China in the last two days.
A violent storm in the southwestern Chongqing Municipality since Wednesday had left 29 people dead and one missing, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs Thursday.
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Storms leave at least 39 dead in China |
More than 70,000 people were relocated in Chongqing due to the extreme weather, the ministry said on its website.
The gales, torrential rain and hail that lashed the city from Wednesday night to Thursday morning had also left 190 people injured as of 3:45 p.m. Thursday, according to the municipal meteorological bureau.
The Chongqing municipal civil affairs bureau has sent 300 tents, 1,000 quilts and 400 emergency lights to the affected regions.
In addition, the municipal health authorities have dispatched two teams of medical workers to Dianjiang and Liangping counties.
In neighboring Guizhou Province, five people are dead and four others are missing after landslides Wednesday night.
The rain-triggered landslides buried eight houses in three villages in Magu township, Hezhang county, the county government said in a statement.
Five bodies had been recovered by 3 p.m., it said.
The county government had ordered watercourses to be cleared, dikes to be reinforced and flood discharge tunnels built to prevent further disasters.
Heavy rain from Wednesday night to Thursday left four people dead and one missing in Xinhua county in the central province of Hunan.
In the eastern province of Jiangxi, torrential rains forced more than 3,500 people to evacuate their homes in Xunwu, Dingnan and Longnan counties by Thursday noon, said a spokesman for the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.
In the hardest-hit county of Xunwu, flooding inundated 164 hectares of crops and disrupted traffic on seven roads.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Disaster Relief Commission have sent emergency teams to the disaster-hit areas in Chongqing to oversee relief work.
The ministry issued a grade IV emergency response alert Thursday afternoon, requiring a 24-hour alert, daily damage reports, and provision of relief funds and materials within 48 hours.
