Four people are dead and 10 missing in central China's Hubei Province following landslides and floods
triggered by continuous rainstorms, the local civil affairs
department said on Wednesday.
In Badong County of Enshi Prefecture, one person was killed and
seven others are missing. The eight victims are all farmers from
Qingtaiping Town.
More than 100 rescuers were searching the area for the missing
bodies and 945 people in the town had been relocated.
The other victims were all from the western part of the
province.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs has sent 1,000 tents to the
disaster-hit province.
Floods have claimed 38 lives in central and southwest China, a
spokesman with the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said late
Wednesday. Another 15 people were missing as of 5 PM Wednesday.
More than 17,000 homes were destroyed and crops on 496,100
hectares of farmland were affected. Agricultural losses stood at 1
billion yuan (about US$130 million) while total losses stood at
1.45 billion yuan (about US$190 million).
(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2007)