Natural disasters leave 185 dead, 52 missing in Aug

BEIJING - Natural disasters in China left 185 people dead and 52 missing in August, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Monday.

The ministry said nearly 85 million people were affected by natural disasters in the month, with more than 5.63 million people forced to relocate. A total of 219,000 houses collapsed and 928,000 were damaged.

The natural disasters also affected 9.85 million hectares of farmland, with 1.05 million hectares yielding no crops at all, causing direct economic losses totaling 136.86 billion yuan ($21.6 billion), the ministry said.

Natural disasters in August were mainly typhoons and flooding, resulting in heavier losses than that of the same period last year.

The month also witnessed several earthquakes. The strongest, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, jolted unpopulated areas in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and no casualties were reported.