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Military barracks washed away
27/07/2006 08:51 - (SA)
Beijing - Flooding washed away a military barracks in southern China, killing at least six people and leaving 38 missing, official reports said on Thursday, as workers rushed to rebuild a levee brought down by Tropical Storm Kaemi.
The torrent that struck the barracks was triggered on Wednesday in Jiangxi province, where Kaemi brought heavy rains and winds, the official Xinhua News Agency said without providing details.
It wasn't immediately clear if the deaths at the barracks were included in the overall official toll of nine dead since Kaemi made landfall as a typhoon in southern China on Tuesday.
A man who answered the telephone at the Jiangxi anti-flood headquarters said the office was still calculating the number of deaths and could not release any figures.
Levee breach
In neighbouring coastal Fujian province, workers in Zhao'an county had laboured around the clock to fill a breach in a 200-metre-long levee that had threatened flooding in six villagers with at least 20 000 residents.
"The leak is basically under control," an official from the Zhao'an county government said in a telephone interview. "More than 300 people worked for hours to fill the breach with sandbags, tree stumps and clay."
An official from the county flood prevention office, who gave only his surname, Shen, said some 40 000 villagers had been evacuated as a precaution.
The levee collapse destroyed 400 homes but no injuries were reported, Shen said.
More rain expected
The state meteorological bureau said more rain was expected to lash southern China on Thursday, especially Fujian, Jiangxi and the inland province of Hunan, which was hardest-hit by tropical storm Bilis.
Kaemi is the seventh typhoon to hit during China's rainy summer season. Each year, hundreds die as floods and mudslides rush down mountains and overwhelm villages, and dams are smashed by rising torrents.
Kaemi hit just as the region was recovering from the last typhoon, Bilis, which caused landslides and rising waters that killed more than 600 people.
North Korea death toll rises
Meanwhile, the United Nations said in a report that floods and landslides in North Korea this month have killed at least 154 people and left 127 missing.
More than 31 000 houses were destroyed and about 17 000 families were left homeless.
- AP
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