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Bilis sears China, 530 dead
22/07/2006 20:57 - (SA)
Beijing - China's death toll from tropical storm Bilis rose to 530 on Saturday.
State media Xinhua news agency reported 48 more deaths in southern Guangdong province and the Guangxi region.
Guangdong's toll jumped to 106 after 43 more deaths were reported from the storm.
In the Guangxi region, five more deaths were reported, bringing the provincial toll to 35.
Bilis slammed into China's southeastern coast on July 14.
It has caused massive flooding and triggered mudslides that have swept away thousands of homes and forced nearly three million to flee their homes.
Hardest hit was Hunan province, said Xinhua.
The agency said 346 people have been confirmed dead in the province and another 89 were missing.
It said 43 people were killed in the coastal Fujian province.
A Communist Party official from Zixing, Luo Xiwu, was quoted by Xinhua on Friday, saying the disaster had caused a "breakdown of communication and traffic systems", which made it difficult for authorities to collect information on deaths and damage.
Deaths underreported says journalist
"The officials did not shift their work focus from rescue and relief to death toll head count and damage investigation until rainstorms stopped and floods receded," said Luo.
A journalist from state television, however, has apparently uncovered the underreporting of deaths in the Hunan province.
According to the journalist, officials in Zixing, a village in Hunan, have drastically underreported the deaths there.
A death toll of 197 was later confirmed for Zixing. Xinhua did not give its initial figure.
Soon afterward, the ministry of civil affairs issued a circular warning that local authorities would be punished if they did not give an accurate report of flood numbers.
Flood waters have washed away roads, cut power supplies and submerged part of China's main north-south railway line in destruction stretching across the south.
Storm-ravaged areas faced new problems this week, as a heat wave baked the region. Temperatures rose as high as 38C in Fujian on Thursday.
- AP
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