China floods and landslides

Days of heavy rain have brought floods and landslides into central and eastern China.

China floods and landslide
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Heavy rain often causes landslides in China. This one occured in Zhouqu County in Gansu Province 12 August 2010 [EPA]

A good part of central and eastern parts of China have been inundated with heavy rain for many days now. The rain has been so persistent in Fujian Province that the rain has triggered a landslide which buried six people.

The landslide happened in Gutian County, Ningde, in the Fujian Province after many days of heavy rain. Those buried were workers who were living in makeshift houses at the foot of a hill which collapsed on top of them.

More than 300 people rushed to the site to help in the rescue operation. Even on Wednesday afternoon, there was still no information on those buried and the rescue work remains on going.

The heaviest rainfall recorded in the province was actually 160mm of rain in the 24 hours up to 0600GMT on Tuesday. The heavy rain also extended into central China. Shexian County in Anhui Province received 92mm of rain in only 4 hours on Tuesday morning.

Cloud shrouded the nearby hills and visibilities were reduced to 10m in places prompting the local traffic department to heighten patrols in order to ensure safety on the roads.

This spell of heavy rain has been bringing around 60 to 70mm of rain to the eastern side of the country, day after day, for the last few weeks now. It does look like we should see some respite from the wet weather across the east, but the rainy season is now setting in to the south and that is likely to become the main focus for flooding in the coming days and weeks.

Source: Al Jazeera