Rainstorms kill 39 in China

Farmers move a pig to a safe place in the rainstorm-hit Tongnan county, Chongqing municipality, July 1, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Rainstorm-triggered natural disasters have hit nine provincial-level regions since June 29, leaving at least 39 dead and another 13 missing, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said Monday.

The ministry had reported 18 people dead and four missing in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, nine dead and four missing in east China's Anhui Province and one dead in central China's Hubei Province as of 2 p.m. Monday.

Flooding and landslides unleashed by torrential rain had contributed to nine deaths and five cases of missing persons in southwest China's Sichuan Province, as well as two deaths in neighboring Chongqing Municipality as of 4 p.m., the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Natural disasters caused by the downpours have affected about 2.44 million people in 34 counties in Sichuan and forced the relocations of some 119,500 people, according to the ministry.

The rainstorms also destroyed more than 5,600 houses and damaged another 10,000 in Sichuan, it said.

Meanwhile, about 876,000 people have been affected and 104,000 evacuated as rain-triggered floods toppled houses and inundated farmland in Chongqing.

In the municipality's hard-hit Tongnan County, many houses were submerged and soldiers were seen using inflatable motorboats to rescue trapped villagers.

"I saw the floodwater swallow an old man," said Wang Shu, who fled her house in the county's village of Meijia at about 4 a.m. amid surging floodwater.

"The water rose to the second floor so quickly that I'm afraid many elderly people (who live in single-story bungalows) were not able to escape their houses," Wang added.

As of 3 p.m., more than 18,000 people had been evacuated in Tongnan, and authorities were still working to confirm the number of casualties, as well as the number of people trapped by the floods.

Chongqing's local government has allocated 10 million yuan (about 1.63 million U.S. dollars) in emergency relief funds, according to the MCA, and local authorities in Chongqing said they have dispatched 31,000 rescuers and relief personnel to the disaster-hit areas.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued a blue alert for rainstorms on Monday, forecasting heavy rain to continue in parts of north and southwest China over the next three days.

The NMC also warned of downpours, thunderstorms and hail in south China's coastal Guangdong province and the island province of Hainan, which are bracing for approaching tropical storm Rumbia.

The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the MCA initiated the level IV national emergency response system for disaster-affected Sichuan and Chongqing on Monday afternoon and sent a work group to direct on-site relief work.