Floods hit China’s Qingchuan

A rainstorm has hit Qingchuan county of southwest China’s Sichuan province, flooding houses in several villages.

Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, 238mm of rain fell on Haoxi township alone.

The water level of the Qiaozhuang river reached 3.51 metres, levelling with the bank.

The area near the bank was cordoned off by the relevant department. Meanwhile, some roads were waterlogged seriously, causing troubles to pedestrians and vehicles.

The thunderstorm on Tuesday night also temporarily cut off water and power supplies in the county. In Haoxi township, the sludge is one metre deep and the roads were all damaged.

In Quhe township, 20 houses were damaged.

So far, most infrastructures in disaster-hit towns and villages were resumed, and all the 1,904 people affected by the disaster were evacuated and resettled.

The rainfall also caused 50 landslides to the national highway 212 and the provincial highway 105.

More than 60 buses were canceled as the traffic department allocated 15 large machines for repair work.

“We are repairing the road from Qiaozhuang to Haoxi, and there are about 50 landslides within 22 kilometers. The road was cut down at more than 30 locations. All the culverts were blocked with silt, and the road was covered in mud. The road was severely damaged, and we have been trying to repair it,” Tu Zhehua, director of the Traffic Department of Qingchuan county, said.

Until Wednesday evening, most of the roads in the county were reopened to traffic except the provincial highway 105.