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 Rain, flooding kills 652 in China

Mon Jul 30, 8:40 AM ET

BEIJING - Floods, landslides and mud flows triggered by torrential rains have killed 652 people in China so far this year, with more heavy rains in the forecast, state media reported Monday.

Xinhua News Agency, quoting the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, also said the flooding had caused $6.9 billion in direct economic losses.

The floods, mostly in southern and eastern China, have destroyed 452,000 homes and affected 119 million people, Xinhua said.

The hardest hit in recent days was Shangluo, in northeastern China's Shaanxi province, which was inundated with torrential rain for 24 hours beginning Saturday night, killing six people and leaving 10 others missing, Xinhua said.

Meanwhile, authorities in central China's Henan province were scrambling to save 69 miners trapped in an underground coal mine for more than 24 hours after flooding and landslides blocked their exit routes, the China News Service reported.

"The 69 miners are in a safe place and their mood is stable," it said.

The report said the miners were able to telephone out, but it did not say what sort of communications system was set up in the state-owned mine.

Thirty-three miners managed to escape the Zhijian mine in Henan's Shan County when it initially flooded Sunday. By late Monday, rescue workers had set up pumps to suck water out of the mine and pump in air, China News Service said.

Officials were also worried about the swollen Huaihe River, where water levels have been above flood stage for nearly three weeks.

Some dikes on the Huaihe's tributaries are in danger of collapsing, and about 270,000 people in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces have been mobilized to fight flooding, Xinhua said.

Heavy rains were forecast to hit China's southwest, northwest and northeast in the coming days.

Meanwhile, in east China's Jiangxi province nearly a million people were suffering drinking water shortages after a month-long drought. Xinhua said 820,000 people and 460,000 head of livestock were affected and at least 77,000 acres of farmland had been ruined.

Summer is peak rainy season in China, where millions of people in the central and southern part of the country live on farmland in flood plains.

Flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people in China last year, according to the China Meteorological Administration. That was the second-deadliest year on record after 1998, when summer flooding claimed 4,150 lives.

 Rain, flooding kills 652 in China (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070730/ap_on_re_as/china_floods_toll;_ylt=AshOdNyxyiD07HDs71PntR0Bxg8F)