Floods devastate China’s Shaanxi province

Days of rainstorms have swelled the Yellow River in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, causing floods and toppling hundreds of houses in the northern part of the province.

More than 80,000 people in six counties and districts of northern Shaanxi’s Yulin and Yan’an cities had been affected by the rainstorms that began on Thursday.

Early on Saturday, a flood toppled a bunk house in a district of Yulin City. Two of the four people in the house were saved, while the other two were still missing.

The province’s Jiaxian County also reported one person missing in the flood.

Rainstorms forced 2,805 residents to evacuate and toppled 400 houses in Yulin and Yan’an cities, drenching some 11,000 acres of cropland, with economic losses exceeding $6m.

So far, the most northern part of the province has been hit by heavy rains with precipitation ranging from 50 to 100 millimetres.

Due to the rainstorms, the main stream of the Yellow River has encountered its first flood peak of the year in Weinan City in Shaanxi province.

The flood peak was estimated to cease on Sunday.

Local authorities have asked cities and townships along the river to be alert to possible disasters and ensure the safety of residents and construction projects.

In the three hardest-hit counties of the Yulin City, precipitation exceeded 100mm on Friday. In a township of Jiaxian County, the precipitation reached 192mm.

The Jialu River, a tributary of the Yellow River, has seen the largest flooding since 1972.

Provincial authorities had an emergency meeting early on Friday to order local authorities to evacuate the people in flood-threatened areas, to cordon off tourism sites along the river, in low-lying mining areas, and those areas likely to collapse, so as to ensure the safety of people and property.