Flooding kills at least 40 in China
1 hour, 38 minutes ago
BEIJING - At least 40 people have been killed in flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains in China and 178,000 have been left homeless, a state news agency reported Sunday.
The highest death toll in the rains, which started Thursday, was in crowded Guangdong province in the southeast, where 14 people were killed and four were missing, the Xinhua News Agency said.
Deaths and damage were reported in areas throughout southern China and the northwest.
In Guangdong, another 28 people were injured and 20,000 forced to flee their homes, Xinhua said.
Guangdong is the heart of China's export-driven light manufacturing industries, but there was no word of any damage to factories or shipping facilities.
In neighboring Hunan province, three people were dead, one missing and 158,000 left homeless, Xinhua said.
China suffers deaths and damage every summer when seasonal rains cause flash floods.
Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes but fatalities are reported in farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers, and in mountain towns that are hit by flash floods.
Millions of people in central and southern China live on flood-prone reclaimed farmland in the flood plains of rivers.
Flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people 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.
Flooding kills at least 40 in China
