Eight bodies retrieved from landslide that swallowed 99
Source: Xinhua |
July 1, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RESCUERS have recovered eight bodies from the ruins of a southwest China village, two days after a devastating rain-triggered landslide destroyed 37 houses and buried around 100 villagers under mud, authorities said yesterday.
As of 10:30pm last night, 91 residents of Dazhai Village in Guizhou Province remained missing, said officials at the rescue headquarters.
The bodies of three buried villagers were recovered last night, bringing the confirmed death toll to eight, said the officials, who revised their count of those buried in Monday's slide to 99.
Teams using 26 heavy backhoes removed 100,000 cubic meters of clay. Some 2,000 people took part in the rescue work, said Pu Jianjiang, head of Guizhou's work safety bureau.
The landslide brought down about 1.5 to 2 million cubic meters of mud, which was unstable and likely to trigger additional landslides, said Yin Yueping, a researcher with the Ministry of Land and Resources.
At least 1,000 villagers who lived in the area have been evacuated.
As of yesterday, flooding in China has killed 400 people this year, with 234 still missing, the nation's flood control authority said.
Torrential rains have pounded 23 provincial-level regions, affecting almost 73 million people and 4.6 million hectares of farmland, according to data from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
The office ordered authorities involved in emergency activities to ramp up anti-flood measures to ensure that reservoirs are not breached by rising waters.
More than 2 million people in eastern Jiangxi Province are at risk as China's largest freshwater lake continues to rise, causing parts of the protective embankment to leak, provincial authorities said yesterday.
Hundreds of soldiers and local residents are patching the leaking sections of the embankment for Poyang Lake in Poyang County. Should they fail, homes of nearly 10,000 people will be flooded.
A part of the embankment in Yugan County is also being repaired after three seepages were found on Monday. Leaks have also been detected on other sections, according to a statement from Jiangxi's Drought Prevention and Flood Control Headquarters.
Villagers, officials and soldiers are patrolling all sections of the embankment around the giant Poyang Lake, an important source of water on middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest, to prevent and fix leaks. The lake covers an area of around 3,050 square kilometers when it's at an average level. It can expand to 3,583 square kilometers during the rainy season.
Dai Huaixiang, 63, has been paroling the embankment for three days. He does so to protect his hometown Tubei Village, 500 meters away from the embankment.
"No matter how tired, we must keep on watching and prevent the embankment from being breached. Floods are more dangerous than tigers," said Dai, who fought a massive flood that killed more than 3,000 people in southern China in 1998.
The water level is expected to keep rising as the Central Meteorological Observatory has forecast rains in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
As of 10:30pm last night, 91 residents of Dazhai Village in Guizhou Province remained missing, said officials at the rescue headquarters.
The bodies of three buried villagers were recovered last night, bringing the confirmed death toll to eight, said the officials, who revised their count of those buried in Monday's slide to 99.
Teams using 26 heavy backhoes removed 100,000 cubic meters of clay. Some 2,000 people took part in the rescue work, said Pu Jianjiang, head of Guizhou's work safety bureau.
The landslide brought down about 1.5 to 2 million cubic meters of mud, which was unstable and likely to trigger additional landslides, said Yin Yueping, a researcher with the Ministry of Land and Resources.
At least 1,000 villagers who lived in the area have been evacuated.
As of yesterday, flooding in China has killed 400 people this year, with 234 still missing, the nation's flood control authority said.
Torrential rains have pounded 23 provincial-level regions, affecting almost 73 million people and 4.6 million hectares of farmland, according to data from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
The office ordered authorities involved in emergency activities to ramp up anti-flood measures to ensure that reservoirs are not breached by rising waters.
More than 2 million people in eastern Jiangxi Province are at risk as China's largest freshwater lake continues to rise, causing parts of the protective embankment to leak, provincial authorities said yesterday.
Hundreds of soldiers and local residents are patching the leaking sections of the embankment for Poyang Lake in Poyang County. Should they fail, homes of nearly 10,000 people will be flooded.
A part of the embankment in Yugan County is also being repaired after three seepages were found on Monday. Leaks have also been detected on other sections, according to a statement from Jiangxi's Drought Prevention and Flood Control Headquarters.
Villagers, officials and soldiers are patrolling all sections of the embankment around the giant Poyang Lake, an important source of water on middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest, to prevent and fix leaks. The lake covers an area of around 3,050 square kilometers when it's at an average level. It can expand to 3,583 square kilometers during the rainy season.
Dai Huaixiang, 63, has been paroling the embankment for three days. He does so to protect his hometown Tubei Village, 500 meters away from the embankment.
"No matter how tired, we must keep on watching and prevent the embankment from being breached. Floods are more dangerous than tigers," said Dai, who fought a massive flood that killed more than 3,000 people in southern China in 1998.
The water level is expected to keep rising as the Central Meteorological Observatory has forecast rains in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
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